Excerpted from The Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society’s online exhibition, “How Tobacco Companies Sold Women a Pack of Lies.”
This exhibition traces the history of efforts by the tobacco industry to encourage women to smoke cigarettes.
At the turn of the 20th century, cigarette smoking was socially unacceptable for women but was gaining a foothold with American men, who were slowly switching from cigars.
Lucy Paige Gaston, founder of the Chicago Anti-Cigarette League, condemned smoking by women on the grounds that it undermined family values and the moral fabric of society.
The potential for the widespread adoption of smoking by ladies in good standing was decried by politically influential leaders of the temperance movement. New York City’s Sullivan Ordinance of 1908 made it unlawful for women to smoke in public, but the ban was largely ignored.
Not until 1919 did a cigarette maker (P. Lorillard Tobacco Company) use chic images of society women in its advertisements—as distinct from the risqué images of women that had long adorned cigar boxes and trading cards in cigarette packs.
World War I changed everything. American tobacco companies supplied unending cartons of cigarettes to the boys in the trenches, while at home women began smoking in public.
In the 1920s cigarettes were essential accoutrements of social trendsetters. 5% of cigarettes were consumed by women in 1923; 12%, in 1929. Still, most cigarette manufacturers were concerned about a prohibitionistic backlash and refrained from promoting their product directly to women.
An exception was the 1927 campaign for Marlboro cigarettes in women’s fashion magazines with the theme, “Mild as May.”
The most renowned advertising campaign of the period directed at women was the association of cigarette smoking with staying slim. Launched in 1928, American Tobacco Company’s “Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet” slogan incurred the wrath of the candy industry.
Read more and view the photo archive on the Cancer History Project:
How tobacco companies sold women a pack of lies
By The Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society | Nov. 2, 2023
This column features the latest posts to the Cancer History Project by our growing list of contributors.
The Cancer History Project is a free, web-based, collaborative resource intended to mark the 50th anniversary of the National Cancer Act and designed to continue in perpetuity. The objective is to assemble a robust collection of historical documents and make them freely available.
Access to the Cancer History Project is open to the public at CancerHistoryProject.com. You can also follow us on Twitter at @CancerHistProj, or follow our podcast.
Is your institution a contributor to the Cancer History Project? Eligible institutions include cancer centers, advocacy groups, professional societies, pharmaceutical companies, and key organizations in oncology.
To apply to become a contributor, please contact admin@cancerhistoryproject.com.
