History of nicotine marketing

Nicotine marketing has continually developed new techniques in response to historical circumstances, societal and technological change, and regulation.

The coughing, throat irritation, and shortness of breath caused by smoking are obvious, and tobacco was criticized as unhealthy long before the invention of the clinical study.

In A Counterblaste to Tobacco (1604), James VI of Scotland and I of England described smoking as "A custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomelesse", and urged his subjects not to use tobacco.

[4] The first known nicotine advertisement in the United States was for the snuff and tobacco products and was placed in the New York daily paper in 1789.

[2] Public health measures against chewing tobacco (spitting, especially other than in a spitoon, spread diseases such as flu and tuberculosis) increased cigarette consumption.

[2] After the development of color lithography in the late 1870s, collectible picture series were printed onto cigarette cards, previously only used to stiffen the packaging.

By the last quarter of the 19th century, magazines carried advertisements for different brands of cigarettes, snuff, and pipe tobacco.

[2] After women won the vote in the early 1900s, temperance groups successfully campaigned for Juvenile Smoking Laws throughout Australia.

[12] Billions of cigarettes were distributed to soldiers in Europe by national governments, the YMCA, the Salvation Army, and the Red Cross.

[2] By the time the war was over, a generation had grown up, and a large proportion of adults smoked, making anti-smoking campaigns substantially more difficult.

[19] At first, in light of the threat of tobacco prohibition from temperance unions, marketing was subtle; it indirectly and deniably suggested that women smoked.

Ads were designed to "prey on female insecurities about weight and diet", encouraging smoking as a healthy alternative to eating sweets.

[24] The brand also promoted political ideas, being sold with collectible image sets showing historical army uniforms.

[28][29]: 4 [better source needed] Initially, suspicion was cast on causes including road tar, car exhaust, the 1918 flu pandemic, racial mixing, and the use of chemical weapons in World War I.

However, in 1929, a statistical analysis strongly linking lung cancer to smoking was published by Fritz Lickint of Dresden.

Despite these findings, free and subsidized branded cigarettes were distributed to soldiers (on both sides) during World War II.

Some of those working with it were involved in mass murder and unethical medical experiments, and killed themselves at the end of the war, including Karl Astel, the head of the institute.

Modern Germany has some of Europe's least restrictive tobacco control policies,[28] and more Germans both smoke and die of it in consequence.

Major cigarette companies would advertise their brands in popular TV shows such as The Flintstones and The Beverly Hillbillies, which were watched by many children and teens.

[47][48] Despite it being illegal at the time, tobacco marketers gave out free cigarette samples to children in black neighbourhoods in the U.S.[49] Similar practices continue in parts of the world; a 2016 study found over 12% of South African students had been given free cigarettes by tobacco company representative, with lower rates in five other subsaharan countries.

The ad was the first in a disinformation campaign, disputing reports that smoking cigarettes could cause lung cancer and had other dangerous health effects.

As these began to come into force, tobacco marketing became more subtle (for instance, the Joe Camel campaign resulted in increased awareness and uptake of smoking among children).

[55] Historian Keith Wailoo argues the cigarette industry targeted a new market in the black audience starting in the 1960s.

Big Tobacco responded by investing heavily in the Civil Rights Movement, winning the gratitude of many national and local leaders.

[56] The period after nicotine advertising restrictions were brought in is characterised by ingenious circumvention of progressively stricter regulations.

[58] The most effective media are usually banned first, meaning advertisers need to spend more money to addict the same number of people.

[29]: 272  Comprehensive bans can make it impossible to effectively substitute other forms of advertising, leading to actual falls in consumption.

[29]: Ch.6&7 One major Indian company gives annual bravery awards in its own name; some recipients have rejected or returned them.

While academics had long speculated that there was paid product placement, it was not until internal industry documents were released that there was hard evidence of such practices.

And it was really the tobacco industry, from the beginning, that was at the forefront of the development of modern, innovative, advertising techniques.and Efforts to Keep Troops Smoking" (FAMRI, 2020)]