It's Toasted!

The "it's toasted" pitch from the Mad Men pilot is a classic moment in the show, perfectly setting the tone for the first season. But while it makes for great drama, and shows how resilient Don Draper can be under pressure, it's not exactly historically accurate. Lucky Strike first used the slogan in 1917, preceeding the moment in the series by over forty years. They weren't even the only coffin nail manufacturer to make use of it, as shown by this 1940's cigarette ad shared by the National Library of New Zealand over the weekend at its Flickr account.



The museum writes, "Despite the product, we are assured that tobacco is a relatively healthful indulgence (less nicotine!), and the glowing face of the smiling young woman working in the healthy outdoors, reinforces this idea."

And that's not all... Along with this one, the museum uploaded a whole set of old advertisements. Here are some more.


1935


1917ish


1927. The artist was Stanley Davis.

For more, check out the rest of the set.