Ivan the Terrible, commercial pitchman

On the subject of despotism I introduced below, I offer up some UK gentleman’s uploads of a series of TV ads intended to sing the praises of a brand of cigarettes called “Century.” The idea was simple: have historical figures tell you how great the smokes were. However, they went from a rather positive figure like Eli Whitney onward to famous rulers of other eras, each one of them puffing away.

More to the point is Catherine the Great:



Or perhaps maybe Genghis Khan (wild accent for this characterization):



But my personal fave has to be a very affable Ivan the Terrible. See, he wasn’t all bad!