Selling Cigarettes and Fighting Science
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,World War I helped to make cigarettes a more accepted 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.