re. Flintstones Cigarette commercial from today's WOB

What's the big deal? At that time just about every popular show on TV had cigarette sponsors. And the major characters ( live or animated actors) in each show often shilled for them.
. Our Congress-critters shouldn't be such sluts. They should either ban cigarette smoking entirely (a seriously bad idea if you think organized crime is bad enough already with just illegal drugs to push - note our Congress-critters created that market for them too. Before those drugs were made illegal, you could go to the pharmacy and get them cheap - very little crime associated with drug use.) or allow cigarette ads back on TV along with the liquor ads we have now (largely with the same constraints - no prime time, no shows targeted specifically at children). The way it is now is totally irrational - but not untypical of gov't policies.

..bh.