NOTEBOOKS Esteve Foundation 42 Television fiction viewed from the perspective Medicine in Television Series of medical professionals House and Medical Diagnosis. Lisa Sanders Editor: Toni de la Torre The Knick and Surgical Techniques. Leire Losa The Sopranos and Psychoanalysis. Oriol Estrada Rangil The Big Bang Theory and Asperger’s Syndrome. Ramon Cererols Breaking Bad and Methamphetamine Addiction. Patricia Robledo Mad Men and Tobacco Addiction. Joan R. Villalbí The Walking Dead and Epidemics in the Collective Imagination. Josep M. Comelles and Enrique Perdiguero Gil Angels in America, The Normal Heart and Positius: HIV and AIDS in Television Series. Aina Clotet and Marc Clotet, under the supervision of Bonaventura Clotet Nip/Tuck, Grey’s Anatomy and Plastic Surgery. María del Mar Vaquero Pérez Masters of Sex and Sexology. Helena Boadas CSI and Forensic Medicine. Adriana Farré, Marta Torrens, Josep-Eladi Baños and Magí Farré Homeland and the Emotional Sphere. Liana Vehil and Luis Lalucat Series Medicine in Television Olive Kitteridge and Depression. Oriol Estrada Rangil True Detective and the Attraction of Evil. Luis Lalucat and Liana Vehil Polseres vermelles and Cancer. Pere Gascón i Vilaplana ISBN: 978-84-945061-9-2 9 788494 506192 42 NOTEBOOKS OF THE ESTEVE Foundation Nº 42 Mad Men and Tobacco Addiction Joan R. Villalbí Don Draper is, in all likelihood, one of the most representative icons of the golden age that TV series are currently enjoying. Set in a New York ad agency in the 1960s, the show is a true and elegant reflection of a period characterized by social discrimination, and has reaped the most prestigious accolades since it premiered on the cable channel AMC in 2008. It scored four consecutive wins as Best Drama in the Em- mys, and three Golden Globes, totaling 20 awards over its seven seasons on air. Even before its finale, it was considered one of the best series in television history. Big tobacco companies have used different strat- eral exhibition. Internal tobacco industry docu- egies to promote tobacco use for decades. Nat- ments revealed in North American court cases urally, direct advertising is the most significant, document this, and the work of Stan Glantz and and one of the most effective; billboards on the his collaborators at the University of California street, seen by the general public in their daily provides ample evidence. lives, is one of its favorite supports, as well as Mad Men is a successful TV series, which adverts in the printed press and spots on radio many consider a work of art. In recent years, and TV. In such adverts, it is common to show part of the creative talent that time back was em- popular figures smoking, and the stars of film ployed in films has migrated toward TV series on and TV were doing it from the 1920s onward. So channels like AMC and HBO. Mad Men is part of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall starred in this process. Since the series is set in the 1960s, tobacco adverts in the 1940s, but so did many when smoking was common in the US, tobacco more US artists, until the practice was declared il- plays a significant role, leading to the formulation legal in 1964. As governments in many advanced of this analysis from a double perspective: the societies adopted policies to reduce the damage viewpoint both of a fan of the series, and of a that tobacco was causing, for example prohib- public health professional involved for years in the iting the advertising and promotion of tobacco, prevention of smoking. the industry sought ever more subtle ways of promoting itself. One of these was through its The historical context of Mad Men presence in films or on TV. In recent years, it has come to light that both studios and artists signed The series Mad Men premiered in 2007 in the US, contracts with tobacco companies that led to at- on the cable TV channel AMC, and ended in 2015, tractive film stars visibly smoking, or even making after seven seasons. Set in New York throughout favorable comments on tobacco brands. These the 1960s, it focuses on an ad agency located tactics intensified in the 1980s, and it has been on Madison Avenue (hence the reference to “Mad documented that during the following decade men”, the men of Madison Avenue in ad agency the presence of smoking on-screen in Hollywood slang, since there were numerous agencies lo- films increased, especially in films rated for gen- cated in the area at that time). The drama follows -55- Mad Men and Tobacco Addiction the career of the creative Don Draper and the al public through the media. The detonators were people in his personal and professional sphere, the 1962 report by the Royal College of Physi- centering on ad agency business and the life of cians in London, Great Britain, and publication of its stars during several years of frenetic changes the US Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee in the US, up until the 1970s. This period allowed report in 1964. Statistics on tobacco use showed the series, using images and dialog, to place sev- the impact of the Surgeon General’s report, which eral themes center-stage: cigarette smoking, al- marked a clear turning point, since its publica- cohol consumption, persistent sexism, budding tion prompted many desertions from tobacco’s feminism, frequent adultery and infidelities, hid- cause. So 1963 was the year of greatest tobacco den homosexuality and homophobia, anti-Sem- consumption per capita in the US (this has been itism, and signs of flagrant racism. Throughout estimated at 4345 cigarettes per inhabitant over the series, events occur which pervade the ac- 18). After the Surgeon General’s report in 1964, tion: Kennedy wins the elections, the contracep- many states and cities began to pass regulations tive pill comes onto the market, the Vietnam War aimed at reducing tobacco addiction. This pro- breaks out, the damage that tobacco causes is cess led to the current situation, where 20% of documented, and so on. Yet perhaps its major adult Americans smoke, a ratio that in New York pillar, one of its main underlying themes, is the City drops to 14% of the population. In this city, deception people weave and their projection of one cannot smoke in the workplace, on public identity. We see characters living a lie, hiding key transport, in bars or restaurants, or on beaches elements of their identities, lives and past, who or in parks. (The fine for smoking in a public park are, moreover, constantly deceiving the people is $US50.) The cost of cigarettes is high due to closest to them. A certain parallel exists between specific taxes (in New York, the average price for a packet is $US12). Tobacco cannot be sold to such aspects and the ad agency’s core activity, persons under 21 in the city. Lastly, messages which builds an unreal image of the brands and warning against smoking, offering reasons to products it promotes to consumers. stop smoking are everywhere. In the early 1960s, tobacco use in the US had reached its critical point. For decades most adult men had smoked, and since the mid-1940s it The key tobacco moments in the series had been widely taken up by women too. Its so- Throughout the series, tobacco is constantly cial acceptance was widespread. One smoked present. The main character, his wife and many at work, on trains, in bars and in restaurants. of the adult characters are smokers. The ab- Advertising frequently laid claim to the presump- sence of tobacco regulation in the period means tive benefits of one brand over another, and its that they smoke in the office, in meetings, in bars less irritant properties. It was not infrequent to and in restaurants. The characters constantly show health professionals on cigarette adverts. smoke. In addition to tobacco’s omnipresence, In 1965, the prevalence of smoking was 42.4% there are three key moments when tobacco is not (51.9% of men and 33.9% of women). merely part of the atmosphere but plays a lead- Early studies incontrovertibly showing the ing role in the show: in episode one of the first damage caused by tobacco were published in the season (focused on tobacco advertising); in the 1950s. Foremost among them was Richard Doll’s twelfth of the fourth season (when they talk about pilot study in the UK and a study of cases and the damage tobacco causes); and in the final epi- controls by Ernest Wynder in the US. This knowl- sode of the seventh and last season (where lung edge began circulating in professional circles and cancer affects one of the main characters). We had a certain impact in the press, but it was not should review these moments. until the early 1960s that the relationship between In the first episode (named, like The Platters tobacco, lung cancer and other diseases became song, “Smoke gets in your eyes”), the agency is generally accepted and reached the wider gener- trying to win an important contract with the com- -56- NOTEBOOKS OF THE ESTEVE Foundation Nº 42 MEDICINE IN TELEVISION SERIES pany that manufactures the cigarette brand Lucky York Times entitled “Why I’m Quitting Tobacco”, Strike. They must combat a growing social per- in which he proclaims he is happy to stop pub- ception that tobacco is bad for one’s health (an licizing a product that kills its users, and that opinion the Reader’s Digest has just published), henceforth he will not accept tobacco companies as well as a prohibition by the Federal Trade as clients. Furthermore, he publishes the letter as Commission from evoking health benefits in ad- a full-page advert.