Matinée Cigarettes

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A couple in a rowboat drift, under pussywillow branches, to the riverbank. He takes her hand and helps her onto the bank. They lie on the grass, his arm cradling her head.

Leaning over her, he proffers and lights for her a Matinée cigarette. This is accompanied by a jingle, in lounge music style: "It’s modern to say, 'oh Yes, mine’s a Matinée.'"

This is a typical advertising set-up of the era, with the use of conventionally attractive people to associate the product with type.

Tobacco advertising, of course, is illegal in this medium today – cigarette advertising was banned on New Zealand television and radio by broadcasting authorities in 1963 in response to medical research on its adverse effects.