How accurate is Mad Men about it's depiction of the trend of smoking in the 60s?

Pretty true. People smoked in restaurants before and after every meal, and at a table of four you could normally count on two smokers.

People smoked in homes without a thought. At parties all the time. In offices: in the early 80s I nearly quit a job because everyone in the office smoked all the time – except me – and it was affecting me badly.

I just couldn’t believe women were smoking while pregnant. I was born in 1985, so I can’t answer your question. But from what I understand, one of the reasons Mad Men is so good is because they’re trying to be as accurate as possible depicting the 60s.

Yep. They used to smoke on television programs, too see Yoko at about 9mins on here…you can easily FF this clip

The Marlboro Man was one awesome dude on that horse of his. But he died of lung cancer.

In the mid-60s, adult smoking rates were over double the current rate; 43% of adult Americans smoked. The link between smoking and lung cancer was recognized in the late 50s, but there was still a lot of skepticism (only about half of Americans believed this as of the early 60s). Health warnings on packages didn’t appear until 1965.

The per capita consumption of cigarettes in the United States in 1963 was 4345 cigarettes per year. As of 2006, that was down to 1619. So you were almost 3 times more likely to see an American smoking a cigarette in the mid-60s.

Near as accurate as my early memories. I remember visiting the family doctor and he was smoking while talking to us. Just about every desk in the courthouse where my grandfather worked had an ashtray on it. People smoked while sitting at lunch counters. I remember going to a public swimpool and the adults were sitting or walking around smoking. Family photographs from childhood always have lots of people with cigarettes in their hands.

If a pregnant woman was under a lot of stress, it was often medically advised that she have a cigarette and/or a glass of wine or beer to relax.

According to this Reuters story, the US government started tracking smoking in the 1960s and at that time about 43% of adults smoked. In the US, the figure is now down to about half that. This is an interesting report on smoking from 1972.

I love Mad Men.

When my Mom was in the hospital in 1960, the doctor sat down to talk to her and they each had a cigarette. When smoking was finally outlawed at our state health department offices, the ashtrays with the state health department logos on them were valuable commodities. I know several people who took their state issued ashtrays home with them before the ban.

Yes, it is true. My aching lungs can attest to it. Office life was smoke-filled in those days.

Yep! I even remember shoppers smoking in the grocery stores back in the 60’s. Also on public transportation.