Cigarette smoking and TOS
- Thread starter JT Perfecthair
- Start date
Wasn't that kind of ad passe by 1967?
Considering how Roddenberry felt about ciggies being smoked by the crew of the Enterprise, it might have been better to have this product (if it existed back then) be used instead;
Ad for the feminist demographic http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4ksye_commercial-virginia-slims-cigarette_news
The ritzy smoker http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B3g80Q03t8
And something http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4jTCU7SsEw
Hober has the general style of the commercials down pretty well. Using characters was more for shows sponsored by a company so the cast might do skits like that. I think your right about that being more common before Trek's time on the air, more in the 50s, Shaka Zulu, but the style over all seems right.
The ritzy smoker http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B3g80Q03t8
And something http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4jTCU7SsEw
Hober has the general style of the commercials down pretty well. Using characters was more for shows sponsored by a company so the cast might do skits like that. I think your right about that being more common before Trek's time on the air, more in the 50s, Shaka Zulu, but the style over all seems right.
Watching that complete broadcast was illuminating. We've been talking about ratings data on the "These Are the Voyages" thread. NBC sure coulda used some more advanced metrics then. Or maybe their advertisers could have, to spend their advertising bucks more wisely. Trek was pulling in the now-coveted younger demographic, but they're advertising Geritol and some old-man cigarette with truck-drivin' music. And others I've already forgotten.
treknician1701
Lieutenant Commander
Actually, I feel that if they had filmed those smoking commercials, now they would be a really great find, if anyone would really have them. There are DVDs filled with old commercials that are sold for big bucks all the time. I would really loved to have seen that Star Trek commercial, especially with SQUARE cigarettes, Hehehehehe. 
Greg
Greg
Not in front of mom, though.
What was the policy of the U.S. Navy in the '50s and '60s regarding smoking on the bridge and so on? Although TOS obviously didn't hew too closely to the Navy, it followed the general model and had plenty of vets among the creative staff. They might have judged it too out of place.
Although that thought may be contradicted by the example of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Apparently they were fine with it.
Every time I see that phrase I think, "I can imagine any number of things greater than what you're doing!" It's positively Pavlovian by now.
Although that thought may be contradicted by the example of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Apparently they were fine with it.
Every time I see that phrase I think, "I can imagine any number of things greater than what you're doing!" It's positively Pavlovian by now.
Now, that's not exactly what the prescriptivists were about. They were merely trying to capitalize on the rampant class anxiety of people who thought their own English wasn't as good as the rich people's.
My Pavlovian response is "That doesn't mean anything!"
I had the same problem back in college when "My bad" caught on. That was fingernails on a chalkboard to me. Your bad what? Nouns! Where are the nouns?
The best way I can parse "imagine greater" is as a malformed suggestion for you to increase your imagination, i.e. as "imagine more greatly", the reason being that there is no other word for greater to modify besides imagine.
I confess: I can't get used to "fail" as a noun, as in "epic fail!"
We already have a word for that: "failure."
This thread is full of win.
No argument here — but I figure that if SyFy wants to make it easier to insult them, then more power to them.
Strangely, that one never bothered me the way it should have.
"Morph" as a verb used to be nails/chalkboard for me, primarily because I was busy looking down my nose about Power Rangers at the time. I'm not sure if that show coined the term or if it existed before.
Ditto with "leverage" as a verb. I used to throw violent tirades about it. The fact is "leverage" only entered my personal radar about the same time as "morph", but a little research shows that usage has been around longer than I have. I stopped having tantrums once someone pointed it out to me.
Anyway, since then I've bowed to convention and started using both terms.
I rarely make comments that would invoke those uses of "win" or "fail". Probably not due to dislike as much as that I'm still getting used to the context.
The misuse of apostrophes still drives me up the wall, though. (The "Simpsons" thread in TV & Media makes me flinch even now.) I'm in a technical writing job, and although my former partner was a very good writer, she occasionally got careless with punctuation.
Eventually I figured out a way to fight back without being too petulant. When I spotted one too many misused apostrophes, I'd take a red marker, circle them all, and write "Catostrophe" at the top of the page.
