A long way … for sure

Every morning I wake up with a weird song running through my head.

Often it’s a praise song that persists for days.  That makes sense because -- as Joe Spell once said -- those are 7-11 songs – the same seven words sung 11 times. 

Of course that gets stuck to your brain.

Today, however, the song was the Virginia Slims jingle from the 70s. What the heck?

Fun fact: the Virginia Slims brand was introduced in 1968 and marketed to young professional women using the slogan "You've come a long way, baby."  Later campaigns have used the slogans, "It's a woman thing," in the 1990s, and "Find your voice."

I haven’t been smoking Virginia Slims. 

The theme of the song is totally off base.

Yet still it haunts me.

You’ve come a long way baby

To get where you got to today

You’ve got your own cigarette now baby

You’ve come a long, long way.

Lots of things indicate progress for women: birth control, female church deacons and pastors. Pants, for heaven’s sake.  But cigarettes? Not such a great picture of achievement.

What a smart marketing ploy, though. Who could resist that packaging with the lovely flower design tattooed around the cigarette?

The timed release of the Eve derivation of Virginia Slims was so perfect. I was growing into my feminist teen self – writing term papers on Title IX and debating topics like abortion and euthanasia in speech class.  All the while playing Juliet to my boyfriend’s Romeo in third period English.

But why, Virginia, why are you haunting me now?

I am wiser. Healthier.

Thanks to Jane Pauley and the Today Show, I know what lungs look like after you have injected your hazy, sexy smoke into them.

Jane quit after seeing this. For me, too, it was a revelation. It sort of blew the Virginia Slims ads away.

So get thee behind me Virginia.

I’ve come a long, long way.