Tobacco
Apic/Contributor/Getty ImagesCamel advertisement stating that their brand is the choice of doctors. 1946.
With all of the negative press that cigarettes get nowadays, it’s hard to imagine that they were once physician approved.
In fact, some doctors pushed them as cures for common ailments like sore throats. Ads from big tobacco companies like Lucky Strike claimed that cigarettes and tobacco could be used to coat the throat as prevention against irritation and coughing.
Up until the late 1960s, pushing tobacco as an easy remedy became a successful marketing tactic (just ask Don Draper and company).
However, in 1964, the Surgeon General released a report detailing the negative side effects of smoking. Turns out that while smokers were coating their throats with “protection,” they were also coating their lungs with deadly carcinogens.
