“Trick Cigar Blows Man’s Head Off”
In a new online exhibition, The University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society examines tobacco in the tabloids.
- Tabloids and tobacco: “TRICK CIGAR BLOWS MAN’S HEAD OFF”
By The Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society, April 18, 2024
This exhibition is drawn from the Center’s collection of supermarket tabloid newspapers with stories about smoking in the 40 years following the publication in 1964 of the Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health—when the few early anti-smoking messages by the American Cancer Society and other health organizations were being drowned out by the torrent of cigarette ads on TV (until 1971), on billboards, at sports events, and in newspapers and magazines.
![Tabloid headline reads: "Cigarette Company Targets Babies".](https://cdn.cancerletter.com/media/2024/04/19161355/03-babies_web.jpg)
![Tabloid headline reads: "Cigarette Company Targets Babies".](https://cdn.cancerletter.com/media/2024/04/19161355/03-babies_web.jpg)
![Tabloid headline reads: "Militant anti-smoking group blamed after… TRICK CIGAR BLOWS MAN’S HEAD OFF! ‘He took two puffs and then –BOOM!’ says restaurant manager”.](https://cdn.cancerletter.com/media/2024/04/19161347/01-trick-cigar_web.jpg)
![Tabloid headline reads: "Militant anti-smoking group blamed after… TRICK CIGAR BLOWS MAN’S HEAD OFF! ‘He took two puffs and then –BOOM!’ says restaurant manager”.](https://cdn.cancerletter.com/media/2024/04/19161347/01-trick-cigar_web.jpg)
![Tabloid headline reads: "Owners forced to buy cigarettes for pooches addicted to smoking. Dogs born with intense cravings for nicotine, say stunned vets."](https://cdn.cancerletter.com/media/2024/04/19161351/02-dogs_web.jpg)
![Tabloid headline reads: "Owners forced to buy cigarettes for pooches addicted to smoking. Dogs born with intense cravings for nicotine, say stunned vets."](https://cdn.cancerletter.com/media/2024/04/19161351/02-dogs_web.jpg)
![Tabloid headline reads: "New York mom of 6-year-old does slow burn. 'If my daughter can't smoke in school - I'll sue'"](https://cdn.cancerletter.com/media/2024/04/19161359/03-school_web.jpg)
![Tabloid headline reads: "New York mom of 6-year-old does slow burn. 'If my daughter can't smoke in school - I'll sue'"](https://cdn.cancerletter.com/media/2024/04/19161359/03-school_web.jpg)
![Tabloid headline reads: "Cigarettes cured my cancer"](https://cdn.cancerletter.com/media/2024/04/19161402/04-cancer_web.jpg)
![Tabloid headline reads: "Cigarettes cured my cancer"](https://cdn.cancerletter.com/media/2024/04/19161402/04-cancer_web.jpg)
![Tabloid headline reads: "Discovered at last: Cancer-proof cigarettes!"](https://cdn.cancerletter.com/media/2024/04/19161406/07-cancer-proof_web.jpg)
![Tabloid headline reads: "Discovered at last: Cancer-proof cigarettes!"](https://cdn.cancerletter.com/media/2024/04/19161406/07-cancer-proof_web.jpg)
Because of the tabloids’ large circulation and their readers’ lower educational attainment compared to the major newsweeklies TIME, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report — which were heavily dependent on cigarette advertising and minimized their coverage of smoking and cancer — these publications could have played a life-saving role in educating the public about the devastating health consequences of cigarette smoking.
Instead, they, too, passed the buck.
Read more on the Cancer History Project.
Related articles by the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
- The boy who cried vape: Philip Morris International calls for a smoke-free world, Jan. 19, 2024
- How tobacco companies sold women a pack of lies, Nov. 2, 2023
- Like father, like son: How tobacco companies targeted families in the 20th century, June 8, 2023
- Coronations, cigarette companies, and cancer, May 5, 2023
- Exhibit: When cigarette filters were made of asbestos, April 13, 2023
- How a two-faced media covered cancer: Promoting research—and cigarettes, April 29, 2022
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