Thursday, December 24, 2015

THE NEANDERTHAL NABOBS OF NICOTINE

Anyone exposed to western culture is no doubt fully familiar with the antics of The Flintstones. The Flintstones originally originated (I guess that's kinda redundant) on the ABC television network as a half-hour cartoon series from 1960 to 1966. Until Homer Simpson and his gang came along, The Flintstones was the most successful animated program of all times. 

ABC actually sought adults, not kids, as its target audience, and the network was very successful in achieving its goal--much to my chagrin. I missed many an episode of Route 66 as a youth in our one-television household because my dad wanted to watch The Flintstones on a competing channel in the time slot.

Fred, Barney, Wilma, and Betty, the main characters of the show, had a sinister side gig. Specifically, the show was sponsored by a cigarette company, and these prehistoric players had a very successful career extolling the joys of smoking Winstons. For a couple of the many examples of their hawking of this product, just click here

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