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• 1 2020-01-10T18:57:25+00:00 Flappers, Suffragettes and Cigarettes 31 After World War One, women demand more equality and freedom, and take up cigarette smoking. Cigarette manufacturers see and opportunity. plain 2020-02-13T17:06:57+00:00  After World War I, younger women began to reject old ways and customs and embraced more modern styles of dress and behavior. Flappers emerged after World War I, and were seen as younger women who wore shorter skirts, wore their hair in a bob and were sometimes also suffragettes. Cigarettes became an integral part of what became known as the flapper persona. The challenge for cigarette manufacturers was to make the adaptation of cigarettes among women more acceptable to a wider group of women. 

  Changes were not just about clothes, and women were also increasing demanding equal rights. Cigarettes could be seen as part of this. 

  Girls begin smoking to demonstrate that they are strictly modern and up-to-date in their views and habits of life. Girls, too, make the point that they have as good a right to smoke as have men. (Benson 193)

  
  
  
  
  

   

  In this change was an opportunity for the tobacco industry, which began to advertise cigarettes directly to women. These often featured celebrities or society women endorsing the cigarette, and sometimes showed cigarettes as part of an elegant life. 
  
  
  
  
  
  The head of American Tobacco Company, George Washington Hill, saw the female audience as "a gold mine right in our front yard." Lingering stigmas against women smoking in public seemed and barrier to sales, and Hill wanted to find ways to remove that stigma and encourage more women to smoke in restaurants or on the street. He believed women would smoke more if they could smoke everywhere.

  How can we get women to smoke on the street? They're smoking indoors. But damn it, if they spend half the time outdoors and we can get 'em to smoke outdoors, we'll damn near double our female market.

  Hill hired a leader in the emerging field of public relations and marketing, Edward Bernays. During World War I, Bernays worked for the Committee on Public Information where we developed his views on creating effective propaganda. A nephew of Freud, Bernays sought to use psychology to shape public opinion. He believed that only using advertising was not a good enough tactic--people needed to believe that they totally exercised free choice in deciding to smoke, and should feel they came to the decision on their own without influence. Brandt, A. The Cigarette Century. p. 87. Bernays believed that there was a relationship between the desire for equal rights and the right to vote for women, and the right to smoke in public. Wishing to establish this more widely in the minds of women without overtly advertising, he devised a staged "news" event to have women at the annual New York City Easter Parade light up Lucky Strikes.. He enlisted the help of a committed feminist, Ruth Hale, who invited women to come to the parade to smoke, urging:

  Women!    
  Light another torch of freedom!    
  Fight another sex taboo.  

  Bernays and Hale successfully recruited a few prominent women to appear in the parade smoking.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It's now a matter of some debate how successful the stunt truly was in promoting smoking in public for women. Bernays claimed that it was a hugely successful and seminal event, but perhaps this was part of his own publicity in shaping of his reputation. Modern historians have started to doubt his claim, and have shown that coverage was more modest than Bernays claimed in his memoir. The New York Times did cover the parade and included a mention of the women smoking, but not in an extensive way. As a master of public relations it is possible that the story of "Torches for Freedom" as a great victory for cigarette sales was an example itself of fake news.

  Murphree, V. (2015). Edward bernays's 1929 “Torches of freedom” march: Myths and historical significance. American Journalism, 32(3), 258-281. doi:10.1080/08821127.2015.1064681

  
  
   As seen in the advertisement below, Lucky Strikes cigarettes emphasized the event and celebrated the freedom of women to smoke anywhere. The theme of equality for women was revisited in the Virginia Slims advertising of the 1965's-1980's.
  
  
  
  
  Whatever worked, publicity stunts, advertising or product placement in movies and television, cigarettes consumption took off after the 1920's, largely through increased sales to women. Cigarette manufacturers also heavily promoted their product in movies and television.
  
  
• 1 2020-02-12T16:43:17+00:00 Using Fake News and Subtle Persuasion to Sell Cigarettes Introduction 12 plain 2020-02-17T16:53:17+00:00
  
  Cigarettes were a great American success story. From earliest times tobacco was grown on the North American continent and was important to both indigenous people and the European settlers. The industrial revolution and automation made the cigarette the preferred method for consuming nicotine. While in the 19th century there were some social taboos around smoking, especially for women. Cigarettes were linked to alcohol and were criticized by the temperance movement, World War I  helped to make cigarettes part of life in the United States. With the growth of print media in the early 20th century, cigarette manufacturers embraced advertising as a way to increase their sales: first in print media and later on television. But the story of how cigarettes were sold to the public is not just a story of advertising. The industry enthusiastically adopted more subtle ways to encourage smoking. Working in tandem with the early public relations guru Edward Bernays, companies sought ways to put cigarette smoking into the public sub-conscience. When they noted that women in the 1920's seemed to view cigarettes as a way to express freedom and equality, they embraced that and tried to reinforce that message using public stunts. They put cigarettes into movies and paid celebrities to smoke their brand of cigarettes. The message, not stated but implied, was that beautiful and glamorous people smoked, and wouldn't you like to be one of them? 
  
  
  
  
  
  It is hard to look back and link the various tactics of the tobacco industry with direct effects on sales, but it is definite that cigarette use grew tremendously in the 20th century, reaching a peak in the 1950's. With the growing popularity of cigarette smoking came increases in cancer, and scientists took notice. They started to publish research implicating smoking in higher death rates, and popular media picked up the story, creating an existential threat against the industry. Soon sales began to decrease, and the industry fought back.
  
  As evidence mounted that smoking and cancer were linked, the tobacco industry started a conspiracy to fight public belief in the growing scientific evidence. They were largely successful for many years until finally the United States court system found them guilty of a criminal conspiracy. The methods used by the industry against science have special resonance today as we see the same tactics employed in current debates. 
• 1 2020-02-13T15:17:39+00:00 Light a Torch for Freedom! 8 Cigarette manufacturers attempt to influence public opinion on women smoking in public. plain 2020-02-13T17:06:13+00:00
  New attitudes toward women and smoking had helped sell more cigarettes in the period after the first world war. But for the head of American Tobacco Company, George Washington Hill,  those gains were not enough. He saw the female audience as "a gold mine right in our front yard" which they were not properly exploiting due to some (Brandt 82) Lingering stigmas against women smoking in public seemed and barrier to sales, and Hill wanted to find ways to remove that stigma and encourage more women to smoke in restaurants or on the street. Hill believed women would smoke more if they could smoke everywhere:

  How can we get women to smoke on the street? They're smoking indoors. But damn it, if they spend half the time outdoors and we can get 'em to smoke outdoors, we'll damn near double our female market. (Brandt 83)

  Hill hired a leader in the emerging field of public relations and marketing, Edward Bernays. During World War I, Bernays worked for the Committee on Public Information where he developed his views on creating effective propaganda. A nephew of Freud, Bernays sought to use psychology to shape public opinion. He believed that only using advertising was not a good enough tactic--people needed to believe that they totally exercised free choice in deciding to smoke, and should feel they came to the decision on their own without influence. (Brandt 87). Bernays recognized that he could create a relationship between the desire of women for equal rights, and the right to smoke in public. Wishing to establish this more widely in the minds of women without overtly advertising, he devised a staged "news" event to have women at the annual New York City Easter Parade light up Lucky Strikes.. He enlisted the help of a committed feminist, Ruth Hale, who invited women to come to the parade to smoke, urging:

  Women!    
  Light another torch of freedom!    
  Fight another sex taboo. 
  (Brandt 85)

  Bernays and Hale successfully recruited a few prominent women to appear in the parade smoking.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  It's now a matter of some debate how successful the stunt truly was in promoting smoking in public for women. Bernays claimed that it was a hugely successful and seminal event, but perhaps this was part of his own publicity in shaping of his reputation.

   

  
  Modern historians have started to doubt his claim, and have shown that coverage was more modest than Bernays claimed in his memoir. The New York Times did cover the parade and included a mention of the women smoking, but not in an extensive way. As a master of public relations it is possible that the story of "Torches for Freedom" as a great victory for cigarette sales was an example itself of fake news. (Murphree 258-281)
   As seen in the advertisement below, Lucky Strikes cigarettes emphasized the event and celebrated the freedom of women to smoke anywhere.
  
  
  The theme of equality for women was revisited in the Virginia Slims advertising of the 1965's-1980's.
  
  
  While it is not possible to look back and measure how successful (or not) advertising and publicity campaigns were, it is clear that cigarette consumption took off after the 1920's, largely through increased sales to women. Cigarette manufacturers also heavily promoted their product in movies and television.