Torches of Freedom

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A. A. Brill when describing the natural desire for women to smoke and was used by Edward Bernays to encourage women to smoke in public despite social taboos. Bernays hired women to march while smoking their "torches of freedom" in the Easter Sunday Parade of 31 March 1929,[1]
which was a significant moment for fighting social barriers for women smokers.

History

Smoking as an inappropriate act for women

Before the twentieth century smoking was seen as a habit that was corrupt and inappropriate for women. Dutch painters used cigarettes as a symbol of human

flappers."[4]

Advertising to women

1900 cigarette ad; targeting women is not a new strategy.
Tobacco companies have long targeted the female market, seeing it as a potential growth area.[5]

Cigarette companies began selectively advertising to women in the late 1920s.[

Tobacco companies had to make sure that women would not be ridiculed for using cigarettes in public and Philip Morris even sponsored a lecture series that taught women the "art of smoking".[2]

To expand the number of women smokers Hill decided to hire

tobacco advertising led to higher rates of smoking among women. In 1923 women only purchased 5% of cigarettes sold; in 1929 that percentage increased to 12%, in 1935 to 18.1%, peaking in 1965 at 33.3%, and remained at this level until 1977.[7]

1990s resurgence

The "Torches of Freedom" idea saw a resurgence in the 1990s far beyond the borders of America, where tobacco advertising was now becoming increasingly restricted.

In the 1990s, tobacco companies continued to advertise cigarettes as "torches of freedom" as they sought to expand their markets around the world. Such brands as Virginia Slims continued to put forward the idea of modernity and freedom in new markets. The use of this imagery when advertising the cigarette has been specifically targeted at women in countries where women are gaining more equality and liberation.

The images used in the

upward mobility, gender equality and freedom
. The impacts of tobacco companies targeting women can be seen by the increase in the number of women who started smoking in recent years.

See also

References

  1. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2021-02-23.
  2. ^
    PMID 10691743
    .
  3. ^ a b Brandt, Allan M. (2007). The Cigarette Century. New York: Basic Books, page 57.
  4. ^ a b Brandt, Allen M. "Recruiting Women Smokers: the Engineering of Consent." Journal of the American Medical Women's Association 51.1-2 (1996). Web. 28 Apr 2010.
  5. ^ Statement: Surgeon General's Report on Women and Tobacco Underscores Need for Congress to Grant FDA Authority Over Tobacco (Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids) Archived 2005-02-05 at the Wayback Machine. Tobaccofreekids.org.
  6. ^ a b c Brandt, Allan M. (2007). The Cigarette Century. New York: Basic Books, pp. 84-85.
  7. PMID 8868553
    .
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