THE FLINTSTONES HELPED SELL CIGARETTES.

In the 1960s, Winston cigarettes sponsored The Flintstones. At the end of the show, Fred and Barney would be animated to smoke the cigarettes. In one black-and-white spot, Barney and Fred avoid yard work. “Let’s take a Winston break,” Barney says, as he and Fred light up. Wilma and Betty catch them in the act and throw yard equipment at them, and Fred says the tagline, “Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should.”

The smoking was short-lived: Enacted in 1970, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act required stricter health warnings on cigarette packs, and it also banned cigarette ads on TV and radio. Later on, The Flintstones started selling the healthier Welch’s grape juice.

April 1, 1970. On this day in 1970, Congress bans airing cigarette ads, President Richard Nixon signed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, which banned cigarette ads from airing on television, news papers, magazines and radio.