David Elliott: Smoking Santa and the plain-pack brigade

Jolly old Saint Nick’s generosity and altruism embody the spirit of the festive season – even the Australian university professor who recently made a ludicrous plea for him to ditch his mince pie habit and crunch on something more wholesome would have trouble denying that. But things weren’t always this way.

Yes, as this startling evidence reveals, in an ill-advised double-whammy of social irresponsibility and scant regard for personal health Santa Claus used to both flog cigarettes and smoke them himself – at least in the eyes of the agencies that produced these tobacco adverts in the 1950s.

Quite what those involved in orchestrating the plain tobacco packaging brouhaha of recent years would make of Santa having a sneaky puff on a Lucky Strike – “a gift of pleasure” – or staring up from the pages of a magazine proffering special-edition Christmas packs of Camels with their bauble-adorned livery is anyone’s guess, but Mr Christmas was in good company – actor and ex-US president Ronald Reagan could be found sending special ‘Christmas-card’ cartons of Chesterfields “to all his friends”, and looking pretty pleased with himself for doing so.

Obviously it would be a little feckless to use Father Christmas to peddle cigarettes nowadays – the thought alone of holding a naked flame so close to such a dense, sherry-soaked beard would have health and safety groups up in arms – but it’s interesting to note how times have changed.

David Elliott is production editor of Packaging News

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