Title: The Past Is A Strange Foreign Country Source:
YouTube URL Source:http://YouTube Published:Sep 4, 2009 Author:USA Post Date:2009-09-04 20:19:02 by X-15 Keywords:None Views:667 Comments:8
These seem to be circa 1961. The Flintstones commercial remind you of what the anti-smoking brigade meant when it complained that cigarette advertising was being aimed at children. With the cigarette-smoking demographic being killed off by its own product, virtually the only way for cigarette companies to keep up was to induce more people to smoke - and that usually meant getting kids to take up smoking.
The tommy gun commercial is simultaneously cute and alarming. Notice how the kid is wearing suspenders AND A NECKTIE (i.e., he's a GOOD boy, not a little ruffian). Teaches kids that shooting at someone will solve problems without actually doing anyone lasting harm. That handgun that pumped out "safe" bullets probably put someone's eye out eventually.
Guns like these, although supposedly child-sized, looked enough like the real thing that (1) robbers actually used them to hold up people and (2) kids playing with those realistic guns had been killed by cops and others who thought they were facing a real gun. As a result, several states (primarily NY) passed laws that toy guns and squirt guns had to be made in colors or shapes that did not resemble the real thing.