Funny retro ad

[lazypadawan]

starwars.com posted an old anti-smoking PSA that I actually remember seeing on t.v. as a kid. In it, Threepio catches Artoo behind some machinery having a smoke and proceeds to lecture him on the dangers of puffing on the cancer sticks. Never mind that droids don't have lungs. Threepio then urges the younguns to just say no to cigarettes.

http://www.starwars.com/episode-iv/bts/article/smokingpsa.html

Too bad just about everyone who co-starred with Threepio and Artoo throughout the saga ignored that advice ;).

Comments

[darth-pipes.livejournal.com]

This does bring back memorioes. I remember seeing a Threepio/Artoo anti-smoking ad when I was a kid and this had to be the one. I love these things. Also add Anthony Daniels to that list of people who didn't take Threepio's advice. When watching Empire of Dreams, they had a clip of Daniels smoking on the set. Now this was a while before the anti-smoking ad but damn...you want to talk about raping my childhood. ;)

BTW, here's another old SW PSA from 1979...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsSIpDK16c4&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Edoubleviking%2Ecom%2F2%2Fstar%2Dwars%2Ddrunk%2Dpsa%2D357%2Dp%2Ehtml

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

Funny thing is starwars.com just posted that PSA today.

[sreya.livejournal.com]

*tsk* I always knew Artoo was a little troublemaker! :~p

[krpalmer.livejournal.com]

I don't remember ever seeing a Star Wars anti-smoking PSA when I was young, but I saw one that did seem to try and take off from the brand. It was animated, and featured a pilot in a costume with some slight resemblance to the Rebel pilot uniform flying a giant ashtray and blowing an even larger cigarette to glowing fragments. (The crosshairs briefly formed the "no smoking" symbol before firing.) The tag line (and the only narration in the piece) was "May your health be with you, always." (I suspect certain people would try to roll out their usual "Lucas is sue-happy!" complaints if they knew about it nowadays...)

On the other hand, if you're looking for a science fiction saga with a different take on smoking, you could always look at the Lensman novels. The Lensmen spend as much time battling drug smugglers as pirate fleets, and drinking seems to be somewhat reprehensible in the books, but every Lensman gets to enjoy his favourite brand of tobacco at his graduation and one of the "Children of the Lens," the perfection of the human species, smokes as well...

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

I bet the author is a smoker ;).

[krpalmer.livejournal.com]

The books were written in the 1930s and 1940s, so I can suppose that was very likely.