Selling Smoke: Tobacco Advertising and Anti-Smoking Campaigns

Lucky Strike campaign using doctors to advertise cigarettes.

Woman enjoying a cigarette

Anti-smoking poster issued by the Pan American Health Organization for World No Tobacco Day 2006

French anti-smoking poster

German anti-smoking poster

Graphic depiction of smoking's impact on the body

Anti-smoking poster from Oman.

Dutch anti-smoking poster

JUUL e-cigarette advertisement

Advertisement for Nicorette gum

Nicoderm nicotine skin patch.

Skoal advertisement

Wrigley gum advertisement

Pamphlet

Cover from Time magazine on tobacco lawsuit

Advertisement from tobacco industry fighting against big government and taxation, published in the Wall Street Journal.

This anti-smoking advertisement takes on the Marlboro brand and its famous cowboy.

“Notice to Clerks/This Register Closed” circa 1997, Department of Health and Human Resources reply card

Wall sign: “Smoking Prohibited by State Law, except in designated smoking areas,” American Lung Association of Connecticut

Women and Smoking, A Report of the Surgeon General, 2001, United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Public Health Service

After a multi-year study, the Surgeon General issued the landmark report Smoking and Health, which linked smoking to an increased risk of developing lung cancer. The report also found that cigarette smoking was responsible for a 70 percent increase in the mortality rate of smokers over non-smokers.

Bassinet with baby in the clouds

Antismoking stickers featuring Joe Camel. INFACT, a Boston non-profit focused on campaigning against transnational companies that have a negative impact on public health, launched the Challenging Big Tobacco Campaign by 1994. INFACT targeted companies like Philip Morris, calling for boycotts not only of tobacco products, but all of the products made by the corporation.

Pregnant woman smoking a cigarette on the pamphlet cover.

Shows the inside of a house, with children, parents and animals suffering from secondhand smoke.

The American Cancer Society issued this pamphlet on November 19, 1992, as part of the “Great American Smokeout” event that happened annually on the third Thursday in November. Garry Trudeau (Yale B.A., 1970, M.F.A. 1973) created Mr. Butts to personify the tobacco industry in his famous Doonesbury comic strip.

According to JoeChemo.org, Joe Chemo, a spoof of Joe Camel, “was developed as an antismoking character by Scott Plous, a Wesleyan University psychology professor, after his father nearly died from smoking. The first image of Joe Chemo ran in the Winter, 1996, issue of Adbusters magazine.” The Joe Chemo campaign was adopted by in part by public health departments in Washington and Colorado, and the website continues to promote anti-smoking efforts through Joe Chemo.

The Lucky Strike “Cream of the Crop” advertising campaign featured actors, such as Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and actresses in magazine ads. These two bridge hands, modeled on the magazine advertisements, are two of “a series of fifty hands arranged by Milton C. Work and packed in ‘Lucky Strike Fifties’.” Jean Harlow (1911-1937) is one of the actresses illustrated.

The figures of a Swiss man and a Scottish woman “can be utilized for luncheon place-cards and for bridge favors, and are offered in order to call attention to the merits of Lucky Strike Cigarettes.” The user was invited to place cigarettes through the two holes leading to the shoes to act as legs and to put a match in the hand to serve as a stick or sword. On the back was a place to tally bridge scores.

A Camel Cash catalog celebrating 85 years of Camel

Examples of Camel Cash, redeemed by smokers for Camel products that promoted the brand.

Athletic African-American men smoking Kools outside - looks like they are taking a break from a game of sports.

African-American woman smoking a Kool cigarette in a park while playing guitar.

Single Kool long cigarette sitting on top of a pack of Kools, dark green background.

Pack of Kool cigarettes with waterfall surrounded by trees in the background

Pack of Kool cigarettes in front of new "Koolhouse" - foldable outdoor enclosure to keep cook inside. also Koolhouse offer.

Kool packs in front of green trees and plants surrounding large waterfall

Kool pack with rainbow leading into it, trees and hills in background

Kool pack of cigarettes with green grass and trees surrounding a lake, with rainbow in background.

Pack of Kool cigarettes in front of mountains, lake and green tree branches

Kool pack of cigarettes, transparent with waterfall in the background

Pack of Kool cigarettes that is transparent with mountains and lake behind it

Kool pack of cigarettes that is transparent with the waterfall behind it

Kool pack of cigarettes in front of stream surrounded by trees and rocks

Transparent Kool pack of cigarettes in front of waterfall surrounded by green trees

Kool cigarette and pack - in the smoke of cigarette is image of waterfall

Kool cigarette, in smoke of cigarette is picture of waterfall surrounded by green trees