Bloom County by Berkeley Breathed for June 22, 2021

“Snorting arsenic”. I’m glad that’s been clarified.

I can remember when they used to advertise cigarettes on television. They used The Flintstones to do commercials for Winston.

very creative, and Berkeley saved time doing the last panel. it reminds me of Walt Kelly doing Pogo and he did a few four panel daily using a firefly propensity to flick on and off. he didn’t have to do any art work on the two panels when the firefly’s “light” was off, however, he did say that trying to come up with a creative script was way more challenging and it basically offset the time saved drawing.

That guy is really filling up the ashtray quickly.

Opus’ answer was “comics”. Today’s answer would be “the press”.

I remember seeing ads using the “Joe Camel” mascot, and thinking it looked rather obscene…

He needs to meet Mr. Butts from Doonesbury!

I remember when tobacco was advertised everywhere. Now we see the PSAs encouraging people to quit by showing smokers who suffered the consequences of their habits. One of the last things my grandfather said to my father before he died of lung cancer in 1964 was to beg him to quit. Dad stopped cold turkey after the Surgeon General’s report came out, and was hospitalized for a time with nicotine withdrawal. He never smoked again and we lost him last year at the age of 88. He had 20 years more than his father and got to enjoy his kids, grandchildren, and even a great-grandson. Good luck to anyone trying to stop smoking. The rewards are worth it.

I quit over a decade ago, after 40 years of smoking, and I’m glad I did. Smoking is bad for health. However… to put some perspective on the dangers of smoking … 350,000 deaths a year out of 350,000,000 people…. that’s 0.10% (one tenth of one percent)…. not a very effective exterminator, nor a potent pandemic. Put another way, it takes tobacco 3 years @ 350K/yr to kill one million smokers, and the CDC currently estimates 34 million adult Americans smoke.. how many years will it take would it take it to kill half of them (17 mil)? Here’s a hint… 51. A quarter of them (8 mil)? 24 years. Smoking is by no means guaranteed lethal, and tobacco use – with undeniable exceptions – takes a long period over decades to result in fatal conditions. Still: If you don’t smoke, don’t start! And if you are smoking, Quit!

Love the rapidly-accumulating butts in the ashtray.

Butt, butt, isn’t tobacco organic?

I used to like tobacco commercials. Never smoked.

I’d walk A mile for lung surgery!

Now, that’s a Creative Omission!

No Fumar!

I won’t tell you how long it took me to figure out why the final panel was omitted.