A rather old (1930's-1950's, I am fairly sure) advertising
ploy (used mostly on
radio) for
Lucky Strikes cigarettes. LSMFT stands for "
Lucky
Strike
Means
Fine
Tobacco." During a
commercial break,
Morse code beeping would fade in, and the
announcer would cry out in a mock emergency-like
tone of voice (remember, this was in the era of
WWII and irrational fear of
Communism), "LSMFT! LSMFT! Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco! ..." and then go into how wonderful the tobacco in
Lucky Strikes is ("It's
toasted!"). (I cannot argue with this at all, they are damned good cigarettes, especially the
unfiltered variety.) You can still see evidence of this
campaign imprinted on the
foil of each pack of
Lucky Strikes: "L.S./M.F.T."
Due to the immense
popularity of this series of letters
back in the day, "LSMFT" took on different, unofficial meanings in this era. For
Republicans, it could mean "
Look,
Suckers!
My
Fourth
Term!", in reference to
FDR's
unprecedented fourth
presidential term. Also coming from the
GOP-leaning citizens was "
Lord,
Save
Me
From
Truman!" I am sure there were numerous other versions floating around in 1940's and 50's
pop culture, but those are the only ones my
old man remembered. And surely, with that "
MF" in there, even
you can come up with fun new meanings for this
acronym! That's high-quality fun for the whole
family!