Recruiting Women Smokers: The Engineering of Consent

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Citation Allan M. Brandt. 1996. Recruiting women smokers: the engineering of consent. Journal of the American Medical Women's Association 51(1-2): 63-66.

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ALLAN M. BRANDT, PhD and 1940. Only by understanding the I, during which cigarettes had become a processes and mechanisms of engaging critical component of the doughboy’s A range of social forces contributed to women as smokers—the rise of new con- rations.4 the effective recruitment of women to ventions and behaviors—are we likely to Antitobacco rhetoric directed at cigarette smoking in the crucial period understand potential strategies for the women inevitably created certain appeals between 1900 and 1940. Cigarette reduction of cigarette smoking. Deci- for smoking. No doubt, many American advertisers and public relations experts phering the particular meanings of the women began to experiment with the recognized the significance of women’s cigarette offers opportunities for reducing cigarette long before the glare of advertis- changing roles and the rising culture consumption. To a remarkable degree, ing would be turned directly upon them. of consumption, and worked to create the appeals smoking had for women of As early as 1916, observers noted a sig- specific meanings for the cigarette to the early 20th century persist today.2 nificant rise in cigarette consumption make it appeal to women. The ciga- among women. Use of cigarettes became rette was a flexible symbol, with a Smoking Against Convention an effective means of challenging social remarkably elastic set of meanings; for Even as cigarette smoking became conventions, of deriding ideals of moral women, it represented rebellious inde- increasingly popular in the last years of purity and the idea of women inhabiting pendence, glamour, seduction, and the 19th century, especially among men, a “separate sphere.” Smoking represented sexual allure, and served as a symbol there was widespread opposition to the a culturally contentious, if not radical for both feminists and flappers. The practice. Cigarette smoking was widely behavior for women. These meanings industry, with the help of advertisers perceived to be a dirty “habit,” character- generated considerable interest and appeal and public relations experts, effectively istic of single, urban men, a disreputable for the behavior. “For a woman it is the engineered consent for women as form of tobacco consumption. Public symbol of emancipation, the temporary smokers. The “engineering of consent” campaigns against smoking often were substitute for the ballot,” explained the has a role to play in smoking cessa- directed at boys; the very notion that Atlantic Monthly (April 16, 1916:574- tion, since negative meanings for the women and girls might be experimenting 575). “Women smoke with nervous cigarette can be engineered as well. with the cigarette was rarely confronted alertness.” A bill proposed in Congress in publicly. The temperance movement, 1921 to ban women from smoking in which grew in strength in the last years the District of Columbia drew fire from It is striking to consider that less than a of the 19th century, often included anti- recently enfranchised women. Such legis- century ago the cigarette was both an tobacco messages in its campaigns.3 lation created new interest in and sup- unusual and stigmatized product, espe- Tobacco, like alcohol, was associated port for the cigarette (New York Times. cially for women. In the course of the with idleness, immorality, and sin. These June 26, 1921:2-9). 20th century the cigarette has become reformers typically elided both moral It was principally women who con- one of the most successful products in and health concerns; in this view, moral- tested these new patterns of behavior. American consumer life. Its dramatic rise ity led to health and healthful living to Groups such as the International Anti- in popularity, however, also explains morality. Tobacco League lobbied film makers dramatic shifts in the burden of disease, Women, widely viewed as the guardians not to portray women smoking, except from infectious disease to chronic dis- of all things moral, played a central role as “the accompaniment of discreditable eases like cancer and heart disease. Only in this early battle to extinguish the ciga- character.” Their resolution explained now are the full repercussions of the rette. Lucy Page Gaston, a spirited mem- that the growing habit of cigarette use commercial success of recruiting women ber of the Women’s Christian Temper- “among women of respectability and as smokers being seen in the steep rise of ance Union, founded the Chicago among high school girls threatens the smoking-related morbidity and mortality.1 Anti-Cigarette League in 1899. Soon a element of womanhood that must This article briefly reviews the social national movement was underway: some mother the American of tomorrow” forces that contributed to the effective cities banned the sale of cigarettes, and (New York Times. March 1, 1922:5-6). recruitment of women to cigarette smok- many states considered restrictions on Other women’s groups, responding to ing in the crucial period between 1900 sales and advertising. The National reports of smoking among teenage girls, Council for Women urged legislation often encouraged young women to banning sales to women. Although more pledge abstinence from tobacco, as well Dr. Brandt is the Amalie Moses Kass Professor of than a dozen states had passed anti- as from jazz dancing and petting (New the History of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and professor of the history of science at tobacco legislation by 1920, the national York Times February 18, 1922:4-6). Harvard University. This work was supported in movement waned in the face of increased Women who smoked reported a new- part by the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation. consumption, especially after World War found sociability associated with the

January/April 1996 63 behavior. Encompassing among its Creating demand for the cigarette epito- against social mores, at the same time it meanings somewhat daring, irreverent mized this new ethic of consumption. represented conformity to the mores of qualities, the cigarette attracted new the rising culture of consumption. A women smokers, eager to test the bound- Creating Demand and wide array of approaches were enlisted to aries of public social convention. Women the Engineering of Consent encourage women to enter the tobacco crowded powder rooms and restrooms, The tobacco industry, which grew by market: testimonials from famous seeking fellow smokers. Dressing rooms leaps and bounds during the first two women—opera stars, actresses, sports on trains apparently filled with smoke, decades of the 20th century, clearly real- stars, and socialites—attested to the as new smokers clustered there. “The ized that women made up half its poten- advantages of particular brands. Ciga- women smokers are bringing about a tial market. The tobacco industry was rettes promoted adventure and social new democracy of the road,” wrote Mar- in no way given to gender exclusions in success; ads depicted smoking in a wide guerite E. Harrison in 1922. “There is the creation of new patrons for its prod- array of social and public settings. These growing demand for women’s smoking uct. Nonetheless, in its efforts to target ads not only promoted cigarette use for compartments. The feminine traveling women, it entered into contested cultural women, they revised social conventions public wants a place in which to lounge terrain. Advertisers and marketers recog- and meanings, establishing new norms of and smoke just as much as the male nized that if smoking was to truly become beauty, style, autonomy, and attraction contingent” (New York Times. July 22, a mass behavior they would need to shape for women.8 1922:III2). Recognizing such demands, this territory. These early debates about Tobacco promoters self-consciously the Globe Theatre in New York City the meaning of smoking for women worked to shape the cultural terrain in created a smoking lounge for women offered opportunities that they seized. which women would become consumers theatergoers in 1922. That smoking had appeal and specific of their product. In 1928, George Although much of the early consump- meanings for women before the onset of Washington Hill, president of American tion of cigarettes took place in such targeted advertising, however, does not Tobacco, turned his full attention to the gender-specific situations, smoking reduce the significance of marketing problem of attracting women to the ciga- among women increasingly occurred mechanisms in the process of recruiting rette market. Hill brooked no dissent in heterodox contexts. It was often sug- women smokers.7 when it came to aggressive, competitive gested that women did not understand Before the late 1920s, social conven- marketing of his premier product, Lucky how to smoke correctly. A hotel manager tions had restricted advertisers from Strikes. Soliciting the aid of noted public explained: “They don’t really know what explicitly pitching the cigarette to women. relations expert Edward Bernays to help to do with the smoke. Neither do they Nonetheless, many tobacco ads indirectly plan his strategy, Hill recognized the know how to hold their cigarettes prop- sought women smokers through images need to fracture the traditional social and erly. They make a mess of the whole per- that emphasized the sociability and allure cultural prohibitions against women’s formance” (New York Times. March 16, of the cigarette. Women frequently smoking. According to Bernays, “Hill 1919:vii2). By the early 1920s the debate appeared in tobacco ads, often as accou- became obsessed by the prospect of for the right to smoke among college terments to the attractive and powerful winning over the large potential female women had become intense.5 Increasingly, smoking male. By the last years of the market for Luckies.”9 Hill reportedly social mores shifted to recognize that 1920s, hesitations about convention and explained, “It will be like opening a new men and women—even if they smoked mores among tobacco advertisers had gold mine right in our front yard.” in particular ways—could now do so in succumbed to a widespread recognition Advertising was but one crucial factor mixed company. that increased numbers of women smok- in what Bernays would call “the engi- By the early 20th century, the cigarette ing presented a vast new market for the neering of consent.” The effective manip- had come to represent a powerful clash cigarette. ulation of public opinion, interest, values, in cultural values. Traditional morality The proclivities of the consumer cul- and beliefs would, in the 1920s, become configured the cigarette as a threat to the ture reified distinctions of gender, even a dominant characteristic in the emer- moral sanctity of women; at the same as the barriers to women smoking came gence of the consumer culture. Having time, the cigarette marked the erosion of tumbling down. Now women were “fair” fixed on the slogan, “Reach for a Lucky certain expectations of strict boundaries game for the solicitations of new and instead of a sweet,” Hill and Bernays set between the worlds of men and women. increasingly sophisticated marketers of out to implement the meaning and The cigarette became a symbol of new cigarettes. The cigarette embodied a impact of this pitch. Recognizing that roles and expectations of women’s behav- remarkably elastic set of meanings for women’s fashions were moving in the ior. From an emphasis on discipline and men and women. For men, the cigarette 1920s to a new emphasis on slimness, self-restraint that had characterized late evoked images of power, authority, and Lucky Strike ads now proclaimed their 19th century cultural values, individuals independence; for women, it represented product as a tool for beauty and physical were now being encouraged to consume. rebellious independence, glamour, seduc- attraction. If pleasure and indulgence were anathema tion, and sexual allure and acted as a Bernays worked to influence the fash- to Victorian expectations of women, by flexible symbol for both feminists and ion industry, sending out hundreds of the 1920s, pleasure and indulgence were flappers. The cigarette even managed to Parisian haute couture photos of slender critical components of what would come contain contradictory meanings; while models to fashion reporters and industry to be called the “consumer culture.”6 smoking often symbolized rebellion leaders. To strengthen his case, he soli-

64 JAMWA Vol.51, No.1&2 cited medical writings on the deleterious pated flapper and the symbol of the powerful conspirators in an insidious impact of sugar on the human body. committed feminist. Newspapers widely campaign to make women smokers Results in hand, Bernays made effective reported their exploit, touching off a would be to misrepresent the history of use of the media to broadcast such find- national debate. Bernays had successfully the era. Given the range of economic ings. Blurring the line between advertis- reinvigorated the controversies of the and social forces eroding prohibitions on ing and the news was an important previous decade, enlisting the cultural female smoking, as well as the remark- technique among the new strategies of tensions over women’s public smoking in able rise of cigarette consumption in the marketing. Although the confectioners his marketing campaigns. While women’s first decades of the 20th century, women protested Lucky Strikes’ claims, Hill and clubs decried the fall of the proscription were no doubt marked as an important Bernays well understood the value of on public smoking, feminists hailed the and inadequately tapped constituency for such controversy for galvanizing atten- change in social convention. Reports of the product. Hill and Bernays do demon- tion and delivering new consumers. women smoking “on the street” came strate, however, how the tobacco indus- By 1929, Hill sought more aggressive from cities and towns across the nation. try came to employ a set of powerful cul- interventions to change the meaning “Age-old customs, I learned,” wrote tural conventions and practices to shape of women’s smoking and to publicly Bernays, “could be broken down by a the meanings of the cigarette and the attract this vast new market. As Bernays dramatic appeal, disseminated by the mores of its use (Printers Ink. November recounted, “Hill called me in. ‘How can network of media.”9 17, 1938:11-13). Through their advertis- we get women to smoke on the street? By the early 1930s, as tobacco manu- ing and public relations efforts, based in They’re smoking indoors. But damn it, facturers began to concertedly direct part on the new professionalism of pub- if they spend half the time outdoors and advertising to women, Bernays returned lic relations and on psychoanalysis as a we can get ‘em to smoke outdoors, we’ll to psychiatrist Brill for professional advice. scientific way to understand human damn near double our female market. Evaluating a proposed ad depicting a behavior, Hill and Bernays shaped and Do something. Act!’”9 Bernays set out woman offering a package of Luckies to promoted the cigarette’s status as the to identify and destroy the taboos associ- two men, Brill offered yet another poten- symbol of the independent feminist and ated with public smoking for women. tial meaning for the symbol of the ciga- the bold, glamorous flapper. The ciga- Seeking to capitalize on the available rette: “Two people should appear, one rette revealed the importance of new scientific knowledge of human behavior, man and one woman. That is life . . . techniques geared to motivate consump- he enlisted the advice of noted psychia- The cigarette is a phallic symbol, to be tion. It was this ability to recognize— trist A. A. Brill, who explained, “Some offered by a man to a woman. Every and exploit—cultural change that lay at women regard cigarettes as symbols of natural man or woman can identify with the heart of successful consumer “engi- freedom. Smoking is a sublimation of such a message.”9 neering.” oral eroticism; holding a cigarette in the In 1934, Bernays intervened once Advertising psychologists and market- mouth excites the oral zone. It is perfectly again in the ongoing efforts to promote ing experts frequently noted—and cele- normal for women to want to smoke smoking among women. Concerned that brated—their newly achieved ability cigarettes.”9 women shunned Luckies because of the to manipulate consumer desire and A nephew of Freud, Bernays was sym- green package that clashed with current behavior. Applying new psychological pathetic to the notion that such insight fashions, Hill urged Bernays to change theories, statistics, and surveys, advertis- could be used to modify patterns of con- the fashion. “That was the beginning of ers expressed confidence in their abilities sumption and use of cigarettes. As Brill a fascinating six-month activity for me— to invoke new behaviors. If women were suggested, “Today the emancipation of to make green the fashionable color.”9 perceived to be the principal arbiters of women has suppressed many of their Bernays developed an eclectic and far- the moral in late 19th century American feminine desires. More women now do reaching strategy that centered on mak- culture, now they were understood to be the same work as men do. Many women ing green the color of the day: he spon- the principal force in the ethos of con- bear no children; those who do bear sored fundraising balls in which invitees sumption.6,8 As one advertising psycholo- have fewer children. Feminine traits are agreed to wear green gowns and a “Green gist explained: “The advertiser, especially masked. Cigarettes, which are equated Fashion Fall” luncheon to promote the the one using large space consistently, with men, become torches of freedom.”9 color green within the fashion industry, has within his power not only to affect Bernays seized on this idea of “torches at which experts discussed the significance temporarily, but to mold permanently, of freedom” as a practical symbol for of the artistic and psychological meaning the thought and attitude he wants his immolating the traditional taboos against of green. Bernays later explained, “I had particular public to have with reference women smoking in public. wondered at the alacrity with which sci- to the relative importance of style and In a publicity stunt of genuine histori- entists, academicians and professional beauty and such other factors as he may cal significance, Bernays recruited debu- men participated in events of this kind. I choose to play up by means of advertis- tantes to march in the 1929 New York learned they welcomed the opportunity ing.”10 Cigarette ads targeted to women City Easter parade brandishing their to discuss their favorite subject and made explicit appeals to both style and “torches of freedom.” The young enjoyed the resultant publicity. In an age beauty. Not only was the cigarette an women marched down Fifth Avenue of communication their own effectiveness accoutrement of beauty, it became a pow- puffing Lucky Strikes, effectively draw- often depended on public visibility.”9 erful symbol of style as well, a symbol ing together the symbol of the emanci- To suggest that Hill and Bernays were deeply embedded in the particular socio-

January/April 1996 65 politics of gender in the 1920s and 1930s. employed to give the cigarette a particu- References In this crucial phase of successful lar set of meanings; these meanings, in 1. US Department of Health and Human Ser- “recruitment,” smoking for women turn, made the cigarette both culturally vices. The Health Consequences of Smoking for Women: A Report of the Surgeon General. Wash- became part and parcel of the “good life” viable and desirable. ington, DC: US Department of Health and configured in the American consumer Understanding the precise cultural Human Services, Public Health Service, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Office on culture. The cigarette’s symbolic mean- meanings of cigarette smoking at any Smoking and Health; 1980. ings—of glamour, beauty, autonomy, particular historical moment may offer 2. Ernster VL. Mixed messages for women: A and equality—were inscribed through opportunities to understand not just the social history of cigarette smoking and advertis- ing. N Y State J Med. 1985;85:335-340. the powerful images of the advertise- process of recruitment, but also the 3. Gusfield JR. Symbolic Crusade: Status Politics ments. The effectiveness of these cam- process of reducing cigarette consump- and the American Temperance Movement. Urbana, Ill: University of Illinois Press; paigns was heightened and reinforced by tion. Further, a recognition that cultural 1966:198. public relations campaigns geared to cre- mores may be shifted by design offers the 4. Sobel R. They Satisfy: The Cigarette in American Life. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books; 1978: ate a positive environment for these new possibility of creating contexts that 255. images. Cigarettes—a nonessential and encourage smoking cessation; negative 5. Fass P. The Damned and the Beautiful: American undifferentiated product—came to meanings for the cigarette may be “engi- Youth in the 1920s. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1977. embody the essential characteristics of neered” as well. Edward Bernays, who 6. Lears J. Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History the consumer culture, driven by creation died at the age of 103 in 1995, had by of Advertising in America. New York, NY: Basic Books; 1994:492. of demand. the end of his life become active in the 7. Schudson M. Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion: antismoking movement. Asked by a Its Dubious Impact on American Society. New Conclusion reporter if he considered himself respon- York, NY: Basic Books; 1984:288. 8. Marchand R. Advertising the American Dream: The success of the engineering of con- sible for the epidemic of diseases now Making Way for Modernity. Berkeley, Calif: sent has had enormous implications for attributable to cigarettes, Bernays report- University of California Press; 1985:448. 9. Bernays EL. Biography of an Idea: Memoirs of women’s health in the 20th century. edly responded by explaining that the Public Relations Counsel Edward L. Bernays. Tobacco marketers developed strategies risks of smoking were poorly understood New York, NY: Simon and Schuster; 1965:849. and techniques that revealed how com- at the time he had promoted their use. 10.Naether CA. Advertising to Women. New York, NY: Prentice-Hall; 1928. prehensive and aggressive their program He suggested, however, that if advertis- for seeking sales would be. This is espe- ing and public relations had “made” the cially clear in the explicit efforts to bring cigarette, they certainly could be enlisted the cigarette market to women. A wide in its destruction. array of social and political symbols were

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