Using TV to Sell Cigarettes to Children

 This dissertation began as a focus on 1950s America and the standardization of cultural norms in post-World War Two America. When millions of American servicemen returned home in 1945 and 1946, they started families. With 10 million Americans starting families, America entered a baby boom.[1] Two direct results of that explosion of births were the creation of suburban communities and the explosion of television ownership by Americans. The explosion of births created a need for new homes for these new families and the GI Bill AKA Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 provided returning servicemen with an opportunity to go to college and the low-interest loans that enabled them to buy a home. Now that the Greatest Generation has survived the Great Depression and World War Two, they could afford to purchase luxury items that had eluded their parents for 15 years. In 1948, only one percent of US households owned a television. By 1955, 75 percent of US households owned a television[2]. Television became a medium for telling millions of American families how to act by telling them what to buy. Cigarette television commercials began in 1952 and continued until the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1971. Cigarette companies like Camel, Marlboro, and Winston used a variety of ad styles in television commercials to attract new customers. Camel Cigarettes had a doctor extolling the health benefits of smoking their brand. Marlboro Cigarettes had the Marlboro Man, a symbol of rugged American men. Winston Cigarettes used the Flintstones television show to create a cartoon ad of main characters Fred and Barney extolling the great flavor of smoking a Winston.

There are two goals in studying these commercials: One, to determine if Camel Cigarettes knew that their product was dangerous to the health of the viewing public when the ads aired. Two, to determine is Winston Cigarettes knew that Winston Cigarettes knew that their product was dangerous to the health of the children who were watching the Flintstones promote smoking. Additionally, the dissertation will examine the role of candy cigarettes in children becoming smokers.

The methodology to conduct research and analysis will be archival since the goal is to prove that cigarette companies were aware that they were advertising a product with a health risk to children. Since all three cigarette brands are owned by R. J. Renolds, it is expected that a visit to corporate headquarters will be necessary. The goal is to examine primary records of how the company historiographically viewed smoking as part of the American identity as well as how they responded to Surgeon General Leroy Burney’s 1957 warning that there may be a link between cigarette smoking and cancer as well as Surgeon General Luther Terry’s 1964 report that cigarette smoking definitively causes cancer and other health issues. Additionally, how these companies responded to the Federal Trade Commission requirement that all cigarette packages carry the warning that their product is dangerous to your health. The first television cigarette ad aired in 1952, and the last one aired in 1971 the night before the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1971 took effect. In addition to primary records such as corporate memos, court documents, and several university health studies from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, there are the commercials themselves. Many of these television commercials from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s are available for viewing on the internet. Additionally, some of the commercial writers and producers may still be alive today to be interviewed. They may have written biographical material explaining their methodological approach to advertising cigarettes.

My interest in this topic is personal. My dad is a 93-year-old retired pediatrician and a former smoker. His father was a smoker, and so was my mother’s father. My mother’s father died from strokes caused by smoking. My father’s father had a heart attack at the age of 70 and immediately quit smoking, but my dad, then 40 years old, kept smoking for another 15 years. He too had a heart attack in his 70s and survived. He loves to tell the story of being in medical school when the Surgeon General’s 1957 cigarette warning came out. How, the day before the lecture hall was so thick with cigarette smoke that you couldn’t see the board from the back of the room. Then, the next day, you could see clearly across the room because everyone was now going outside to smoke. I am left wondering if this Silent Generation that was born in the midst of the Great Depression and grew up in the rationing shortages of World War Two were more likely to become smokers than other generations? Did military service affect smoking? Dad served in Korea with the First Calvery. Did the affluence of 1950s television affect his smoking? Finally, as a doctor of children, why did he like his partners, smoke at work with all that was known by the time I was born in 1968? 

 

 

[1] "A Brief History of Levittown, New York". Levittown Historical Society. Archived from the original on December 20, 2008. Retrieved December 30, 2008.

[2] Robert D Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 217.