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MG TD TF 1500 - MG in cigarette advertising

I was just watching Al Jazeera's TV reporting on Philip Morris losing a court case challenging Australia's strict tobacco laws.
The report included cigarette advertising from the past to show how changes have been dramatic - a Marlboro advertisement showed a man lighting up before working on his car, undoubtedly an MG, looks like a TA or TC. Definitely a case of portraying the glamour surrounding owning an MG!
Photo attached taken of my TV screen here in Bali.

Doug


DRP Wallace

Leaning over your carbs smoking, can definitely be hazardous to your health!

Larry
Larry Brown

td most probably with the wiper on the passengers side
mog

Well worth watching!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wibHcZ4FNbU
Chris Malcolm (TD29228)

Today that seems to be an extremely dangerous thing to do, back in the 50s it was common practice. A lot of you younger guys weren't even born yet, but most of us older folks remember. Smoking back then was an everyday normal thing for the majority of people and smoking while working on cars was the same. How many time have I seen a gas station attendant smoking while filling up a car with gas, not too common, but a lot of them didn't think beyond their nose. Back then you never filled up your car with gas, the attendant filled the tank, washed the windshield, checked the oil and checked the tires, this was common practice, so you had to watch out for the guy with the cigarette. PJ

Oh yeah, and that service was when gas was 25 cents a gallon! Tony the Tiger wasn't even born yet. LOL.
Paul161

Well spotted Mog, yes certainly a left-hand drive TD.
Chris thanks for finding the commercial, my goodness what a change in attitudes over these past 60 years. That poor guy had no time for lunch but kept on smoking non-stop!

Paul, what you say about the attendant filling up your tank still today applies here in Indonesia where I live; mostly now they never smoke on duty but did just a few years ago. Motorcyclists routinely speak on their mobile phones at the pumps!

Doug
DRP Wallace

Who says there isn't truth in advertising?
Now someone smoking while actually driving an MG... That would be stretching the truth... But smoking as a stress reliever while cursing and trying to fix the Lucas electrics... Par for the course!
Geoffrey M Baker

It's a filthy dirty disgusting addiction, but I blame no one for the consequenses of my actions other than me.


MG LaVerne

MG, you're not alone. From our Club's September newsletter:
"Jud and his MG TD have something in common. They both like to smoke. The secret word is smoke."
http://fbccsc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Sept-15-smaller.pdf

I seem to recall a thread showing a center console from a TD sporting a lighter and an ashtray. I wonder how many of our DDs even have an ashtray. Mine doesn't. Jud
J. K. Chapin

I loved that ad. Especially the line, "I like things that are well designed." And he's working on a TD?!!
S Maas

Here in New Jersey, by law, the attendants still fill our tanks.
Of course gas is 8 times higher than then.

Jim B.
JA Benjamin

Mine does. I have another one I made for the TD..no ashtray... solid black walnut I'd sell for a reasonable offer. Good cup holders ...easily removable for shows and such. The octagon trim was for show only and I did not use them.


MG LaVerne

"Here in New Jersey, by law, the attendants still fill our tanks."
Same in Oregon (unless the law changed in the past couple of years). Cheers - Dave
DW DuBois

OK... LaVerne proved me wrong 😃 Nice cup holder!
Geoffrey M Baker

Whilst a student in the 60s I worked in a fabrication shop during the summer. I can clearly remember welders lighting their oxy acetylene torches from cigarettes held in their mouths. They never appeared to singe their eyebrows. I have seen them light their welding torch with sparks from a bench grinder and then use this to light their cigarette. How things have changed!

Happy Christmas

Jan T
J Targosz

It is entirely possible to smoke in an open sports car, though I have not tried it specifically in a TF. In the early sixties, when I was both younger and more stupid than now - well younger anyway, I drove a Sprite and was a dedicated smoker. Top down fast driving was no deterrent to the needed fag. There was no need of an ash tray, one simply poked the cigarette up slightly above the windscreen level. A little finesse was needed. Actually, though the aim was to disperse ash into the countryside behind, the result was probably to put the ash into the cockpit due to the eddy. At that age analytical forward thinking was not a strong point.

Happy Christmas to all.

Bill McGee
Bill McGee

Wow, watching that commercial today, really brings out how much we were manipulated by advertising.
Bruce TD4139 Cunha

Health warnings have been printed in cigarette packaging since 1964. I too smoked for 17 years and after four attempts I finally quit them in August, 1980.

I have a hard time with people who claim they didn't know it was dangerous. After 50 years of warning, sorry chum, you had it coming.

Cheers

Gary
79 MGB
gary hansen

Bruce: We WERE manipulated? I think we ARE manipulated. Every hear of the Kardashians? :-)
Christopher Couper

Aren't the Khardashians a race of evil guys in bad clothing trying to dominate the Star Trek universe?
Geoffrey M Baker

Geoffrey: See if you can pass this test?




Christopher Couper

Yes, Oregon still has attendants fill the tank but I have been told there is an exception for "classic" cars. I never take them up on that, it being too easy to let them do it.
John Quilter

I've filled up in Oregon in the TF several times. They had no problem with me filling the tank myself. Around 25 years ago however when we were traveling through in a motor home we once owned an attendant got all bent out of joint when I began to fill the tanks myself. One tank was very touchy and there was no way he would have gotten it fueled.

I find the law there and in NJ rather bizzare. I have no problem if it was optional but with an attendant I sort of expect a full service experience which it isn't even close.
MG LaVerne

This thread was discussed between 24/12/2015 and 26/12/2015

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