Signed, Sealed and Delivered: ''Big Tobacco'' in Hollywood, 1927–1951
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Tob Control: first published as 10.1136/tc.2008.025445 on 25 September 2008. Downloaded from Research paper Signed, sealed and delivered: ‘‘big tobacco’’ in Hollywood, 1927–1951 K L Lum,1 J R Polansky,2 R K Jackler,3 S A Glantz4 1 Center for Tobacco Control ABSTRACT experts call for the film industry to eliminate Research and Education, Objective: Smoking in movies is associated with smoking from future movies accessible to youth,6 University of California, San Francisco, California, USA; adolescent and young adult smoking initiation. Public defenders of the status quo argue that smoking has 10 2 Onbeyond LLC, Fairfax, health efforts to eliminate smoking from films accessible been prominent on screen since the silent film era California, USA; 3 Department of to youth have been countered by defenders of the status and that tobacco imagery is integral to the artistry Otolaryngology – Head & Neck quo, who associate tobacco imagery in ‘‘classic’’ movies of American film, citing ‘‘classic’’ smoking scenes Surgery, Stanford University with artistry and nostalgia. The present work explores the in such films as Casablanca (1942) and Now, School of Medicine, Stanford, 11–13 California, USA; 4 Center for mutually beneficial commercial collaborations between Voyager (1942). This argument does not con- Tobacco Control Research and the tobacco companies and major motion picture studios sider the possible effects of commercial relation- Education and Department of from the late 1920s through the 1940s. ships between the motion picture and tobacco Medicine, University of Methods: Cigarette endorsement contracts with industries during this period. This paper examines California, San Francisco, California, USA Hollywood stars and movie studios were obtained from the relationship between the motion picture and internal tobacco industry documents at the University of tobacco industries during the ‘‘studio system’’ era, Correspondence to: California, San Francisco (UCSF) Legacy Tobacco when major film companies held actors to multi- S A Glantz, Center for Tobacco Documents Library and the Jackler advertising collection year contracts and controlled most first-run movie Control Research and Education and Department of Medicine, at Stanford. theatres. University of California, 530 Results: Cigarette advertising campaigns that included Parnassus Ave #366, San Hollywood endorsements appeared from 1927 to 1951, Francisco, California, 94143- METHODS 1390, USA; glantz@medicine. with major activity in 1931–2 and 1937–8 for American Internal tobacco industry documents at the ucsf.edu Tobacco Company’s Lucky Strike, and in the late 1940s University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) for Liggett & Myers’ Chesterfield. Endorsement contracts Legacy Tobacco Documents Library (http://www. Received 14 March 2008 and communication between American Tobacco and Accepted 18 July 2008 legacy.library.ucsf.edu) were obtained through movie stars and studios explicitly reveal the cross- keyword searches, including ‘‘movie endorse- promotional value of the campaigns. American Tobacco ment’’, ‘‘agreement’’, ‘‘testimonial’’, ‘‘Hollywood’’ paid movie stars who endorsed Lucky Strike cigarettes and ‘‘screen/movie star’’ and major studio names http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/ US$218 750 in 1937–8 (equivalent to US$3.2 million in (e.g., ‘‘Paramount’’, ‘‘Warner Bros’’) between 2008) for their testimonials. November 2007 and February 2008. The snowball Conclusions: Hollywood endorsements in cigarette method and surrounding Bates number searches advertising afforded motion picture studios nationwide were used to investigate the evolution of certain publicity supported by the tobacco industry’s multimillion endorsement contracts or advertising campaigns. US dollar advertising budgets. Cross-promotion was the Endorsement contracts were also related to addi- incentive that led to a synergistic relationship between tional cigarette advertisements found from a the US tobacco and motion picture industries, whose review of the Robert Jackler collection of tobacco artefacts, including ‘‘classic’’ films with smoking and advertisements (http://tobacco.stanford.edu) in glamorous publicity images with cigarettes, continue to January and July 2008. Online archives of the Los perpetuate public tolerance of onscreen smoking. Market- Angeles Times and New York Times were searched on September 27, 2021 by guest. Protected copyright. based disincentives within the film industry may be a using such terms as ‘‘testimonial’’, ‘‘endorsement’’ solution to decouple the historical association between and ‘‘tobacco advertising’’. Relevant advertising Hollywood films and cigarettes. budgets were obtained from the US Census Bureau’s Statistical Abstract and the marketing journal Printer’s Ink. In total, 246 archival docu- Smoking in movies is a major reason for adoles- ments were ultimately analysed. Movie, studio and cent1–4 and young adult5 smoking initiation. actor details were obtained from the Internet Because there is a dose–response relationship in Movie Database (http://www.imdbpro.com). US the effect of smoking in movies on adolescent dollar values were adjusted for inflation to 2008 smoking, public health authorities have urged that equivalents using the average Consumer Price smoking be removed from films rated for youth Index for the relevant year. audiences by rating future movies with smoking Keyword searches found that tobacco company ‘‘R’’ in the USA (or ‘‘18’’ in the UK or ‘‘18A’’ in print and radio endorsement contracts with Canada). Such a change would reduce adolescent motion picture figures, and related studio corre- exposure to smoking by about 60% and prevent an spondence were concentrated between 1927–1951; estimated 200 000 youth from starting to smoke in from the advent of ‘‘talking’’ motion pictures to This paper is freely available the US alone.67 the rise of television. The number of Hollywood online under the BMJ Journals unlocked scheme, see http:// Paid product placement of tobacco products in endorsements in print adverts and radio broadcasts 8 9 tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/info/ movies between 1970 and the mid-1990s is well between 1927–1951 was determined by review- unlocked.dtl documented. Nevertheless, when public health ing cigarette advertisements and radio program Tobacco Control 2008;17:313–323. doi:10.1136/tc.2008.025445 313 Research paper Tob Control: first published as 10.1136/tc.2008.025445 on 25 September 2008. Downloaded from transcripts in the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library and the national advertising opportunities afforded by the tobacco Jackler collection. Endorsements were defined by endorser, industry, major studios maximised exposure for their stars, advertising copy, movie tie-in and accompanying contract who ‘‘sold’’ the studios’ pictures to the public, in promotional agreement, and counted in the year of first appearance. The broadsides timed to the opening dates of their large budget ‘‘A’’ extent to which major studios engaged in tobacco cross- class films. promotion was determined by the number of times a specific studio was mentioned in a cigarette print advert or Hollywood American Tobacco exploits ‘‘talkies’’, 1927 guest star appearance on a tobacco-sponsored radio program. American Tobacco, one of the leading cigarette companies of its Monetary considerations made to Hollywood stars for their day,16 was well positioned to out-advertise its competition using testimonials were taken from endorsement agreements and innovative multimedia campaigns. Retained by American converted into 2008 US dollar equivalents. Tobacco in 1925,16 Lord & Thomas advertising agency by 1927 also represented Radio Corporation of America (RCA), the RESULTS parent corporation of the National Broadcasting Company, and Cross-promotion arrangements (then termed ‘‘tie-ins’’, ‘‘tie- RKO, an RCA subsidiary and one of Hollywood’s major film ups’’ or ‘‘exploitation’’) generating publicity for tobacco studios.17 Later, Paramount Pictures, another major studio, companies and studios originated from cigarette advertising became a client of Lord & Thomas.16 One of the largest featuring testimonials from stage celebrities such as Florenz advertising agencies, Lord & Thomas ran American Tobacco’s 11 Ziegfield and Helen Hayes. Cigarette advertising campaigns campaigns until its successor entity, Foote Cone & Belding, exploiting Hollywood celebrity while promoting films from the resigned the account in 1948. major studios appeared from 1927 to 1951, but creation of new Following Warner Bros’ 1927 release of The Jazz Singer, the adverts peaked in three major campaigns: 1931–2 and 1937–8 world’s first synchronised ‘‘talking picture’’ that made movies for American Tobacco’s Lucky Strike and in the late 1940s for into a mass phenomenon, American Tobacco sought Liggett & Myers’ Chesterfield (fig 1). Hollywood endorsements for an ongoing campaign that claimed Lucky Strike spared smokers’ throats and protected their voices Tobacco companies give Hollywood national advertising (table 1). The focus on show business and its personalities Advertising-driven competition among Lucky Strike, differentiated American Tobacco’s celebrity testimonials from Chesterfield and Camel cigarette brands made the tobacco other tobacco companies, which weakly copied American industry among the biggest advertisers in the USA. In 1929, Tobacco’s innovation before the 1940s. In a 1928 Lucky Strike American Tobacco spent US$6.5 million (US$80 million in advert featuring actor Jimmy Gleason’s testimonial and plug- 2008)