Tobacco Control 2000;9:3–8 3

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COVER ESSAY

From social taboo to “torch of freedom”: the

marketing of cigarettes to women

Amanda Amos, Margaretha Haglund

Nice girls don’t smoke

When the Irish born American femme fatale
Lola Montez had her photograph taken at a
Boston studio in 1851, neither she nor anyone
else could foresee the future symbolic value of
the cigarette as a sign of emancipation for
women and the tragic development that we are
now facing with women as the next wave of the
tobacco epidemic. With the dress and hairstyle
that she was wearing in the photograph Lola
Montez could have passed for a lady, if it
wasn’t for the cigarette which stood out so
eVectively against her black gloved hand (fig
1). Used as the focal point of this picture, the
cigarette was intended to be provocative.
Ladies in 1851 did not smoke, and the very
notion that women and girls might be

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experimenting with cigarettes was certainly not
acknowledged publicly. Indeed smoking by
women in North America and Europe had
long been associated with loose morals and Figure 1 Lola Montez.
dubious sexual behaviour. As far back as the
17th century Dutch painters had used tobacco which have recently undergone or are
and smoking to symbolise human folly. The undergoing rapid social change.
only women shown smoking in these paintings The development of mass produced
were either whores or procuresses.1 Similarly in cigarettes at the end of the 19th century had a
the 19th century women smokers were viewed profound eVect on tobacco consumption and
as fallen women, with smoking the the place of tobacco in society. In comparison
occupational symbol of prostitution.2 Indeed with traditional smoking methods, cigarettes
cigarettes became a common prop in Victorian were clean, easy to use, modern, and
erotic photography.3 Only rebellious, bohe- increasingly cheap. However, although ciga-
mian intellectuals and artists such as George rette smoking started to become more popular
Sands dared challenge these social mores. So among men around the turn of the century,
there was at the same time considerable oppo-
widespread was the social stigma attached to
sition to cigarettes. Smoking was seen as a dirty
women smoking that as late as 1908 a woman
habit that corrupted both men and women,
in New York was arrested for smoking a
and women’s groups played an important role
cigarette in public,2 and in 1921 a bill was pro- in the anti-tobacco movements in the US and
Public Health posed in the US Congress to ban women from Canada.2 4 The tobacco companies responded
Sciences, Department smoking in the District of Columbia.4 by employing modern marketing methods to
of Community Health It is therefore remarkable that within 50
Sciences, Medical help spread their message. Although attractive
School, University of years of the invention of the mass produced young women often featured in promotional
Edinburgh, Teviot cigarette, smoking among women in North materials such as advertisements, posters, and
Place, Edinburgh America and northern Europe has become
EH8 9AG, UK cards, their role was to entice male rather than
A Amos socially acceptable and even socially desirable. female customers. There is little evidence that
This was due not only to the dramatic changes tobacco companies directly targeted women to
National Institute of in the social and economic status of women
Public Health, Sweden any significant extent at this time or attempted
M Haglund over this period, but also to the way in which to challenge the dominant social stigma
President, International the tobacco industry capitalised on changing attached to female smoking.
Network of Women social attitudes towards women by promoting
Against Tobacco The first world war proved to be a watershed
(INWAT) smoking as a symbol of emancipation, a “torch in both the emancipation of women and the
of freedom”. This message is still being spread of smoking among women. During the
Correspondence to: promoted today by the tobacco industry war many women had not only taken on
A Amos
[email protected] around the world, particularly in countries “male” occupations but had also started to
4 Haglund, Amos

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sociable, fashionable, stylish, and feminine.
The goal was a potential doubling of the mar-
ket. As described in 1928 by Mr Hill, the presi-
dent of American Tobacco, “It will be like
opening a new gold mine right in our front
yard”.5

She’s gotta have it

One of the quickest ways to interest women in
his product, Mr Hill believed, was to zero in on
women’s waistlines. The timing could not have
been better as slimness was coming into
fashion along with bobbed hair and short
skirts. The president of American Tobacco saw
the potential of selling cigarettes to women as a
fat free way to satisfy hunger. The Lucky Strike
campaign “Reach for Lucky instead of a sweet”
of 1925 was one of the first media campaigns
targeted at women (fig 2). The message was
highly eVective and increased Lucky Strike’s
market share by more than 200%. With the
help of the father of public relations, Edward
Bernays, American Tobacco made Lucky
Strike the best selling brand for two years.
Another important element in the compa-
ny’s campaign to change the image of smoking
Figure 2 Lucky Strike ad.
was to challenge the social taboo against
wear trousers, play sports, cut their hair, and women smoking in public. In 1929 there was
smoke.3 4 Subsequently attitudes towards the much publicised event in the Easter
women smoking began to change, and more Sunday parade in New York where Great
and more women started to use the cigarette as American Tobacco hired several young women
a weapon in their increasing challenge to tradi- to smoke their “torches of freedom” (Lucky
tional ideas about female behaviour. In powder Strikes) as they marched down Fifth Avenue

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rooms and rest rooms many women sought fel- protesting against women’s inequality.2 5 This
low smokers eager to push the limits of event generated widespread newspaper cover-
accepted social conventions. Soon the cigarette age and provoked a national debate. As
became a symbol of new roles and expectations Bernays reflected later, “Age old customs, I
of women’s behaviour. However, it is question- learned, could be broken down by a dramatic
able whether smoking would have become as appeal, disseminated by the network of the
popular among women as it did if tobacco media”.6 Tobacco companies also needed to
companies had not seized on this opportunity ensure that women felt confident about smok-
in the 1920s and 1930s to exploit ideas of lib- ing in public and not run the risk of being ridi-
eration, power, and other important values for culed, as in 1919 when a hotel manager told a
women to recruit them to the cigarette market. New York Times reporter that women “don’t
In particular they needed to develop new social really know what to do with the smoke. Neither
images and meanings for female smoking to do they know how to hold their cigarettes
overcome the association with louche and properly. Actually they make a mess of the
libidinous behaviour and morals. Smoking had whole performance”.5 While to some extent
to be repositioned as not only respectable but tobacco companies tackled this by using
images of women smoking in cigarette
advertisements, they also ensured that
Hollywood stars were well supplied with
cigarettes and often paid them to give endorse-
ments in advertisements. Philip Morris even
went so far as to organise a lecture tour in the
US giving women lessons in cigarette smoking
(fig 3). Within 20 years of starting to target
women, over half the young women (16–35
years) in Britain, for example, had become
smokers.7
Since starting to target women in North
America and northern Europe in the 1920s
and 1930s the tobacco industry has become
more sophisticated in its marketing strategies,
developing a diverse range of messages,
products, and brands to appeal to diVerent
segments of the female market. As Lorraine
Greaves has argued,2 such marketing messages,
and the way that they have been reflected in
Figure 3 Lecture tour organised to give women lessons in smoking. and reinforced by the mass media, has led to
Marketing of cigarettes to women 5

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It’s so me
As in the earlier part of this century, companies
are seizing the opportunities presented by
often very rapid cultural, social, and political
change to promote the “liberating” symbolic
value of smoking to women. Thus in Spain
after the fall of the Franco regime, ads for Kim
in the 1980s promoted the slogan ‘Asi, como
soy’ (It’s so me) (fig 4). More recently West ads
in Spain have shown women in traditionally
male occupations such as fighter pilots. Smok-
ing rates among Spanish women have
increased rapidly, from 17% in 1978 to 27% in
1997.8 Rates in young women are still increas-
ing with nearly half of all 18–24 year old
women now smoking.
Some of the most blatant targeting of
women has occurred in the former socialist
countries of central and eastern Europe, which
are now exposed to the commercial forces of
“free” markets, and have the highest rates of
female smoking in the world.9 Here cigarettes
are promoted to women as a potent symbol of
Western freedom, as in “Test the West”. In
Figure 4 Spanish Kim ad. Hungary it is “Lady’s first” (sic), while in the
Czech Republic young women are encouraged
to join the men in their western male leisure
the cultural meaning of women’s smoking in pursuits (fig 5). Smoking rates among young
these countries shifting from being a symbol of women in these countries are increasing much
being bought by men (prostitute), to being like more rapidly than countries where smoking
men (lesbian/mannish), to being able to attract took oV earlier this century. In Lithuania, for
men (glamorous/heterosexual). To this could example, smoking among women doubled over
also be added its symbolic value of being equal a five year period in the 1990s and increased by

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to men (feminism) and being your own woman fivefold among the youngest groups (Stanikas
(emancipation). However, despite this prolif- T, personal communication, 1999). In
eration in messages and meanings it is striking Sweden, one of Lithuania’s neighbours, where
how tobacco companies have continued to use women started to smoke in large numbers in
imagery around emancipation, the cigarette as the 1950s, it took almost 20 years for the
a “torch for freedom”, as they attempt to female prevalence to double. Indeed one
develop new markets among women around advertisement for West even suggested that
the world. women smokers would risk experiencing

Figure 5 Hungarian Kim ad; Czech L&M ad.

6 Haglund, Amos

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ments urging women to “Be you” (fig 7 a,b),
and telling Hong Kong women “You’re on
your way”, while Capri ads have encouraged
them to have their own opinions. Also in Japan,
Capri advertisements have featured “real life”
European female role models such as a dress
designer “The dress I design represents my
own way of life”, and Virginia Slims has shown
a male and female rugby player together with
the byline “the locker rooms are separate but
the playground and the goal are common” (fig
7 c,d). A recent survey by the Japanese Minis-
try of Health and Welfare showed that smoking
among women aged 20–29 years more than
doubled between 1986 and 1999, from 10.5%
to 23.2% (WHO, personal communication,
1999).
In South Africa Benson and Hedges have
started to produce advertisements which
feature young black women. One advertise-
ment showed a young dark skinned woman in
aerobics gear smoking a cigarette with a young
black male. In another a black woman wearing
traditional headgear was shown seated with a
Figure 6 US Tareyton ad. black man accepting a cigarette from a white
man. The copy line was “Share the feeling,
violence in order to defend their “right” to share the taste”. In India in 1990 the Golden
smoke (see cover). This startling and oVensive Tobacco Company attempted to target women
message echoes one previously seen in the US with a new brand, “MS Special Filter”.17
in an ad for the brand Tareyton “the cigarette Advertisements featured Indian women in
with the taste worth fighting for!” (fig 6). Western clothing and aZuent settings, symbols
In Germany in the 1990s young women have of liberation for Indian women who are gaining
become a prime target for cigarette ads,10 11 financial and professional independence. How-
many of which have promoted smoking as syn-

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ever, following numerous protests the
onymous with western images of modern campaign fizzled out.18 In China the first ever
emancipated womanhood. It is therefore brands to be developed by the Chinese tobacco
particularly worrying that between 1993 and industry are aimed at women.19
1997, rates of smoking among 12 to 25 year old Not only do these advertising images and
women in former East Germany nearly messages echo those seen in the 1930s ads in
doubled from 27% to 47%.12 In contrast rates the US and UK, but so do other elements of
among young men showed a less steep increase the social marketing strategies. This was seen
from 38% to 45%, and there was little change recently in Sri Lanka where, in a modern
in smoking rates among the same age group in version of the 1929 New York Easter Parade
former West Germany. In addition the desire to march, the Ceylon Tobacco Company hired
quit among 12–25 year old smokers declined young women to drive around in “Players Gold
from 62% to 42% over this period. Leaf” cars and jeeps handing out free cigarette
samples and promotional items. These women
Back to the future also handed out free merchandise at popular
In many other countries around the world, shopping malls and university campuses.20 In a
particularly less developed countries, cultural country where only 1% of women smoke, this
and economic factors have prohibited women seemed to be part of a wider strategy to
from taking up smoking in significant challenge the social taboo that respectable
numbers.13 14 As in Europe, however, women women in Sri Lanka should not smoke and
are beginning to be targeted in countries where certainly not in the street.
they are experiencing improvements in their
economic, social, and educational status, with Women: the second wave of the tobacco
cigarettes being promoted as both a passport to epidemic
and symbol of emancipation, independence, The World Health Organization estimates that
and success. A 1990 editorial in Tobacco the number of women smoking will almost tri-
Reporter noted the growth opportunities repre- ple over the next generation to more than 500
sented by women as “Women are becoming million (WHO, personal communication,
more independent and, consequently, adopting 1999). Of these, more than 200 million will die
less traditional lifestyles. One symbol of their prematurely from smoking related diseases.
newly discovered freedom may well be The biggest rise in female smoking will be in
cigarettes”.15 A more recent editorial in the less developed countries, where the current
same journal urged its readers to look for the rate of around 7% will increase to 20% by
positive in Asia where among other trends “an 2025. In Europe where in most EU countries
increasing acceptance of women smoking con- girls now have higher smoking rates than boys,
tinues to generate new demand”.16 Thus we the gap between male and female smoking
have seen in Japan Virginia Slims advertise- rates will continue to narrow.8 In some
Marketing of cigarettes to women 7

Tob Control: first published as 10.1136/tc.9.1.3 on 1 March 2000. Downloaded from http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/ on March 4, 2021 at Bangladesh: BMJ-PG Sponsored. Protected by
countries, such as has already happened in work with and involve women’s organisations
Sweden, women’s rates may even overtake which so far have shown little interest in this
men’s. Central to tackling this second wave of issue.21
the tobacco epidemic is the need to implement The year 2000 will hopefully prove to be a
comprehensive bans on tobacco promotion major watershed in the history of women’s
and marketing around the world. There is also smoking. In particular it will see the
a need at all levels to acknowledge women’s publication of several important reports, nota-
tobacco use as a major health problem and to bly the US surgeon general’s report on women
built international as well as national and tobacco, and the report commissioned for
consensus around this issue. Building support the WHO International Conference on
for women centred tobacco control pro- Tobacco and Health in Kobe on “Making a
grammes through partnerships will be vital to diVerence in tobacco and health, avoiding the
achieve success. In particular there is a need to tobacco epidemic in women and youth”. These

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(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 7 Japanese ads for Virginia Slims (a, b, d) and Capri (c) (d)
8 Haglund, Amos

Tob Control: first published as 10.1136/tc.9.1.3 on 1 March 2000. Downloaded from http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/ on March 4, 2021 at Bangladesh: BMJ-PG Sponsored. Protected by
will provide both international perspectives on, to ashes: the history of smoking and health. Amsterdam-
Atlanta: Editions Rodopi, 1998.
and analyses of, the determinants of women 2 Greaves L. Smoke screen—women’s smoking and social control.
smoking and a solid evidence base for future Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 1996.
action. In Europe, the EU funded Interna- 3 Koetzle M, Scheid U. Feu d’amour—seductive smoke.
Cologne: Benedikt Taschen,1994.
tional Network of Women Against Tobacco 4 Waldron I. Patterns and causes of gender diVerences in
(INWAT) Europe project will disseminate its smoking. Soc Sci Med 1991;32:989–1005.
5 Brandt AM. Recruiting women smokers: the engineering of
expert report which considers the key elements consent in smoking and women’s health. Journal of the
of a women centred tobacco control strategy American Medical Women’s Association 1996;51:63–66.
for Europe. Global INWAT, which has 6 Bernays E L. Biography of an idea: memoirs of public relations
counsel Edward L Bernays. New York: Simon and Schuster,
members from over 60 countries, plans to run 1965.
workshops at the World Conference on 7 Wald N, Nicolaides-Bouman A. UK smoking statistics.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Tobacco or Health in Chicago which aim to 8 Joossens L, Sasco A. Some like it ‘light’: women and smoking in
develop and strengthen networks and partner- the European Union. Brussels: ENSP, 1999.
ships to support action on women and tobacco 9 World Health Organization. Tobacco or health: a global status
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in countries around the world. 10 Amos A, Bostock C, Bostock Y. Women’s magazines and
tobacco in Europe—a fatal addiction? Edinburgh: European
Commission/University of Edinburgh. In press.
Conclusion 11 Amos A, Bostock C, Bostock Y. Women’s magazines and
At the beginning of the 20th century few peo- tobacco in Europe. Lancet 1998;352;786–7.
ple could ever have imagined how such a stig- 12 Bundeszentrale fur gesundheitliche Aufklarung. Die
DrogenaYnitat Jungendlicher in der Bundesrepublik Deutsch-
matised behaviour as female smoking would be land 1997. Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum: Stabss-
transformed, with the aid of judicious market- telle Krebspravention: 1999.
13 Amos A. Women and smoking. Br Med Bull 1996;52:74–89.
ing, into a socially acceptable and desirable 14 Chollat-Traquet C. Women and tobacco. Geneva: WHO,
practice. The challenge facing us as we enter 1992.
15 Zimmerman C. Growth is the watchword for the Asian
the 21st century is to develop women centred tobacco industry. Tobacco Reporter 1990;117:4.
tobacco control programs, which incorporate 16 Tuinstra T. The end of the tunnel. Tobacco Reporter
the social marketing methods so successfully 1998;summer:4.
17 Gupta PC, Ball K. India: tobacco tragedy. Lancet 1990;
used by tobacco countries, to stem the second 335:594–5.
wave of the tobacco epidemic particularly in 18 Crossette B. Women in Delhi angered by smoking pitch.
New York Times 1990; March 18:139.
second and third world countries. We should 19 Hui L. Chinese smokers take to slim cigarettes. World
take heart that Edward Bernays, who played Tobacco 1998;July:11.
such an important role in the cultural transfor- 20 Seimon T, Mehl G L. Strategic marketing to young people
in Sri Lanka: ‘Go ahead—I want to see you smoke it now’.
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this was possible.5 21 Amos A. Involving women’s organisations in tobacco
control—what are the challenges? In: Liu R, Mackay J, Niu

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S, Peto R, eds. The growing epidemic: proceedings of the 10th
1 Harley D. The moral symbolism of tobacco in Dutch genre World Conference on Tobacco or Health, Beijing, China, 1997.
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Note to readers
We hereby solicit your ideas and contributions for future covers of Tobacco Control. As with
previous covers, we would like future covers to be colourful and creative—with a tobacco
control theme. Original artwork, anti-tobacco posters, photographs, and cartoons may all be
considered. Material with an international flavour would be particularly desirable. A cover
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commentary on the cover.
Please send ideas and submissions (original or high-quality, camera-ready photographs) to
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