Cigarette smoking for weight loss
Encyclopedia
Cigarette Smoking for Weight Loss is a practice dating to early knowledge of nicotine as an appetite suppressant. Tobacco use was associated with appetite suppression among pre-Columbian indigenous Americans, and old world Europeans. For decades, tobacco companies have employed these connections between slimness and smoking
in their advertisements, mainly in brands and advertisements targeting women and related body image issues. Culturally, the links between smoking cigarettes and controlling weight run deep. While it is unclear how many people begin or continue smoking because of weight concerns, research reveals that white female adolescents with established weight-related anxieties are particularly prone to initiate smoking.
Cultural connections between cigarettes and being thin are reinforced through mass media
depictions of high levels of cigarette consumption among thin public figures, such as persons in the fashion industry.
Basic, though generally not extensive knowledge of nicotine’s effects upon the appetite
also contributes to people smoking for weight control purposes. However, studies have not shown that people smoke exclusively to maintain or lose weight.
has been proven to be an appetite suppressant. Nicotine reduces appetite and can influence an individual’s eating habits. A study on nicotine’s effects on appetite demonstrated that “net effects of nicotine include elevated blood pressure, heart rate, and gastric motility while eliciting a sustained decreased in food intake. Autonomic, sensory, and enteric neurons each constitute potentially important loci for nicotine-mediated changes in feeding behavior.” Thus the cultural associations between smoking and weight control in part reflect the body’s physiological reactions to nicotine.
Nicotine gum
has similar effects to cigarettes in terms of appetite suppression, and there are some people who do not smoke, but use nicotine gum for the purpose of weight control or weight loss.
Nicotine also can lower insulin
levels in a person’s bloodstream, which can reduce cravings
for sugary foods. Furthermore, “nicotine-triggered effects of adrenaline on the stomach’s musculature” lead to temporary feelings of subsided hunger. Other studies have shown that smokers expend more calories while engaged in activity, which echo conclusions that smokers experience heightened metabolic rates.
There is controversy concerning whether smokers are actually thinner than nonsmokers. Some studies have shown that smokers—including long term and current smokers—weigh less than nonsmokers, and gain less weight over time. Conversely, certain longitudinal studies
have not shown correlation between weight loss and smoking at least among young persons. Accordingly, while the connection between nicotine and appetite suppression, as well as other physiological responses to nicotine consumption, has been established, whether these chemical and biological reactions translate to smokers being thinner than nonsmokers (at least concerning certain age groups), is still debated. Age may act as a compounding factor in some of these studies. Essentially, a causal relationship has not been explicitly established between physiological effects of nicotine and epidemiological findings about weight among smokers and nonsmokers.
Further research needs to examine trends in ethnicity concerning women and smoking for weight control. So far, studies have shown that young white women may be more prone to use cigarettes to manage their weight. Advertisements for particular brands and types of cigarettes seem target this demographic accordingly.
Several studies have been conducted over the past decade examining this issue in depth. While it has generally been found that white females are more apt to smoke to lose weight, one study found that smoking to lose or control weight is not limited to white females, but is prevalent across racial and gender boundaries. Within all racial groups, it was found that weight concerns and negative body perceptions were a significant factor in an adolescent's decision to smoke. However, it should be noted that the relationship between weight and smoking amongst young men was only statistically significant in white or mixed race groups.
In the past, studies have shown that adolescent girls do consider weight loss or weight control to be one of the positive values of smoking. Overall, young women and girls concerned about weight control, particularly those already using unhealthy weight control techniques, are at a higher risk of smoking.
and public relations
, transforming tobacco use into a desirable pastime for female consumer in both the United States and abroad.
act for women to participate in. During the 19th century, smoking
and cigarettes were commonly associated with loose morals and sexual promiscuity
. A common prop in Victorian erotic pornography, cigarettes even came to be thought of as an occupational prop of prostitutes and sex workers. Even into the early 20th century, women faced possible arrest if they were caught smoking in public.
as they gained new civil liberties. By the outbreak of World War I
, as they experienced growing responsibility and freedom on the home front, an increasing number of women were using cigarettes as a tool to challenge traditional ideas about female behavior. However, it would ultimately be the tobacco industry’s powerful marketing
influence that would turn the cigarette from a social liability into an accepted and desirable commodity for women to openly indulge in. However, many question whether or not the cigarette would have become so ubiquitous among women if the tobacco industry had not seized on the liberating social climate of the 1920s and 30s to exploit the ideas of emancipation and power in order to recruit the untapped female market.
, Percival Hill, was one of the first tobacco executives to seek out the women’s market. Noting the 1920s penchant for bobbed hair cuts, short skirts and slender figures, Mr. Hill saw the potential in selling cigarettes as an appetite suppressant so that women could achieve the decade’s enviably small waistlines.
Created by Albert Lasker
for Mr. Hill and Lucky Strike
, the “Reach for a Lucky” campaign is one of the most successful, albeit controversial advertising campaigns in the history of modern advertising. Inspired by other campaigns that offered male consumers a reason why they should smoke a given brand (i.e. the Lucky Strike “It’s Toasted” campaign), Lasker sought to give the female market a reason to smoke as well.
Borrowing from the 19th century slogan of Lydia Pinkham’s
Vegetable Compound, “Reach for a Vegetable,” that was marketed towards women for the alleviation of menstrual discomfort, Lasker and Lucky Strike launched the “Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet” campaign in 1925, followed by “For a Slender Figure—Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet” in 1928. The print advertisement was disseminated by Edward Bernays
throughout the fashion industry in numerous fashion magazines and daily newspapers featuring slender Parisian models and proclaiming the dangers of sugar consumption. Famously, Amelia Earhart
would also serve as a spokeswoman for the “Reach for a Lucky” campaign.
Early on, the print advertisements simply featured an attractive woman with any of the variations of the slogan above or underneath her, accompanied by a rendering of the Lucky Strike Box. Later, the advertisements would make a more pointed statement about weight gain, featuring either a man or a woman in profile view with his or her noticeably fatter shadow silhouette behind. While these early advertisements would focus on both men and women, later variations would target women specifically.
In The Cigarette Century, Allen Brandt explains that the campaign was revolutionary in its pointed targeting of female consumers as well as in its aggressive marketing strategy that positioned it in direct opposition with candy manufacturers. Shortly after the campaign was released, the National Confectioners Association
fired back at Lucky Strike, threatening legal action and publishing anti-cigarette literature that asserted the importance of candy in a balanced, healthy diet. The dispute between Lucky Strike and the National Confectioners Association ultimately drew the attention of the Federal Trade Commission
who ordered Lucky Strike to “relinquish all dietary claims for Luckies” in its advertising.
Importantly, this campaign would serve to create a significant association between cigarettes and the feminine values of style, beauty and slimness. Moreover, Allen Brandt writes that the campaign ultimately “promoted a product and a behavior that…possessed specific and appealing social meanings of glamour, beauty, autonomy, and equality” that would come to be synonymous in future cigarette advertising campaigns targeting female consumers. Lucky Strike’s message was highly effective, raising the company’s market share
by more than 200% and making it the most profitable cigarette brand for two years running.
After the “Reach for a Lucky Campaign,” Lucky Strike sought to forever change smoking taboos by encouraging women to smoke openly in public. In an infamous publicity stunt, Edward Bernays hired several young, attractive women to march in the Easter Sunday parade
in New York brandishing their “torches of freedom”—their Lucky Strike cigarettes. While this campaign did not market cigarettes as weight loss devices, it set the precedent for the new trends in niche market
ing that would come to shape the future ways in which the industry would posit new types of cigarettes as weight loss aids. Moreover, it would forever change the public’s thoughts on women smoking, transforming the act from a transgressive one into a normalized feminine behavior.
released the Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee Report on Smoking and Health. This report lead to the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act in 1965, which would mandate that all cigarette packs display warning labels and would change the ways that the tobacco industry would reach consumers via advertising. In April 1964, with Federal Trade Commission
statutes pending, the tobacco industry would take on a program of self-regulation in its advertising. This program would become known as the Cigarette Advertising Code, and as Allen Brandt explains, the program:
With these regulations in place, the tobacco industry could no longer directly market cigarettes to women as weight loss aids like they had in the past. Rather, they would come to rely upon more subversive forms of marketing to target women’s concerns with weight management.
introduced a new brand of cigarettes called Virginia Slims
. Following in the footsteps of Lucky Strike, Virginia Slims were marketed specifically to young, affluent and independent women with the tagline created by the advertising agency, Leo Burnett
, “You’ve Come a Long Way Baby,” referencing the history of women’s liberation. With a colorful, pastel package and female-oriented print advertising featuring beautiful and elegant women, Philip Morris sought to create a cigarette that embodied women’s concerns with glamour, style and body image. Moreover, the brand created rift in the market that differentiated between men’s and women’s cigarettes.
But perhaps most importantly, Virginia Slims appeal to women’s ideals about slimness in their name: Virginia “Slims”--a key value that was not lost on consumers. In The Cigarette Century, Allen Brandt recounts United States Supreme Court case Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc.
, in which habitual tobacco user, Rose Cipollone, filed suit against Liggett and Myers
, Lorillard and Philip Morris in five separate tort cases, citing their cigarettes as the cause of her cancer. During her deposition, Cipollone recounted her smoking history, noting that she switched to Virginia Slims in 1968 because female-centered marking appealed to her. Brandt writes that Cipollone described the cigarettes as “the first cigarette for women only…designed slimmer for a woman’s slimmer hands and lips…and packed in a slim purse pack.”
While Federal Trade Commission regulations prohibited brands from claiming any health benefits like weight loss, Virginia Slims appeal to women’s concerns with aesthetic slimness with their elongated shape and narrow circumference. While traditional cigarettes
are 84mm in length, Virginia Slims come in both 100 and 120mm lengths that give the cigarette a more dainty or elegant appearance. Moreover, with a 23mm circumference, slim cigarettes are said to produce less smoke than traditional cigarettes.
Cigarettes have a long tradition of being coupled with athletics, health and fitness. As early as the mid-to-late 19th century, Bull Durham cigarettes were the official sponsors of professional baseball, horse racing and golf, and by the 1950s, Camel
commonly used sports imagery in their print advertisements.
Thus, it was not unheard of when Virginia Slims sponsored the Women's Tennis Association
in 1970, then known as the “Virginia Slims Circuit”. With this prominent sponsorship came a whole slew of advertisements that featured tennis greats like Billie Jean King
and Rosemary Casals
alongside the Virginia Slims logo.
Other Virginia Slims advertisements feature slender women in varying states of activity (dancing, running, ice skating, etc.) thus promoting a general attitude of health and fitness.
community through advertising. Like early niche advertisements that appealed to female consumers, gay tobacco advertisements draw on themes of virility and body image, although it is unclear if gay men tend to smoke to control weight. While the tobacco industry’s marketing of the gay community is legal, many within the community have expressed disapproval of the industry’s pointed tactics.
as a side effect
of smoking cessation
remains a major aspect of smoking and weight control. People can be discouraged by weight gain experienced while quitting smoking. Weight gain is a common experience during smoking cessation, with roughly 75% of smokers gaining weight after quitting. As nicotine is an appetite suppressant and smokers expend more energy, weight gain due to smoking cessation is generally attributed to increased caloric consumption and a slowed metabolic rate
.
Weight gain can be a deterrent in the smoking cessation process, even if many smokers did not smoke for weight control purposes. Those in the process of quitting smoking are recommended to follow a healthy diet
and to exercise regularly. Most quitting advice encourages people to not be discouraged should they experience weight gain while quitting smoking, as the health benefits of quitting almost always exceed the costs of weight gain. Studies have shown that weight gain during the smoking cessation process is often lost eventually through diet
and exercise.
As weight-related advertising has generally focused on women, research has shown that young women are particularly an at-risk population for smoking for weight control purposes, and more research needs to focus on gender and ethnic trends concerning adolescents and smoking, although tobacco companies are starting to aim advertisements at the gay community.
However, the reasons for which people smoke are ostensibly complex, and can rarely be attributed to just a desire to control or reduce body weight. That said, the legacy of the association between being thin and smoking has nevertheless impacted 20th century culture in countless ways.
Smoking
Smoking is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco or cannabis, is burned and the smoke is tasted or inhaled. This is primarily practised as a route of administration for recreational drug use, as combustion releases the active substances in drugs such as nicotine and makes them...
in their advertisements, mainly in brands and advertisements targeting women and related body image issues. Culturally, the links between smoking cigarettes and controlling weight run deep. While it is unclear how many people begin or continue smoking because of weight concerns, research reveals that white female adolescents with established weight-related anxieties are particularly prone to initiate smoking.
Cultural connections between cigarettes and being thin are reinforced through mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
depictions of high levels of cigarette consumption among thin public figures, such as persons in the fashion industry.
Basic, though generally not extensive knowledge of nicotine’s effects upon the appetite
Appetite
The appetite is the desire to eat food, felt as hunger. Appetite exists in all higher life-forms, and serves to regulate adequate energy intake to maintain metabolic needs. It is regulated by a close interplay between the digestive tract, adipose tissue and the brain. Decreased desire to eat is...
also contributes to people smoking for weight control purposes. However, studies have not shown that people smoke exclusively to maintain or lose weight.
The Science of Nicotine-Related Appetite Suppression and Weight Control
Though smoking is widely discouraged by public health professionals for its countless negative health consequences, nicotineNicotine
Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants that constitutes approximately 0.6–3.0% of the dry weight of tobacco, with biosynthesis taking place in the roots and accumulation occurring in the leaves...
has been proven to be an appetite suppressant. Nicotine reduces appetite and can influence an individual’s eating habits. A study on nicotine’s effects on appetite demonstrated that “net effects of nicotine include elevated blood pressure, heart rate, and gastric motility while eliciting a sustained decreased in food intake. Autonomic, sensory, and enteric neurons each constitute potentially important loci for nicotine-mediated changes in feeding behavior.” Thus the cultural associations between smoking and weight control in part reflect the body’s physiological reactions to nicotine.
Nicotine gum
Nicotine gum
Nicotine gum is a type of chewing gum that delivers nicotine to the body. It is used as an aid in nicotine replacement therapy , a process for smoking cessation and quitting smokeless tobacco. The nicotine is delivered to the bloodstream via absorption by the tissues of the mouth.It is currently...
has similar effects to cigarettes in terms of appetite suppression, and there are some people who do not smoke, but use nicotine gum for the purpose of weight control or weight loss.
Nicotine also can lower insulin
Insulin
Insulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....
levels in a person’s bloodstream, which can reduce cravings
Food craving
A food craving is an intense desire to consume a specific food, stronger than simply normal hunger. According to Marcia Levin Pelchat "It may be the way in which foods are consumed A food craving is an intense desire to consume a specific food, stronger than simply normal hunger. According to...
for sugary foods. Furthermore, “nicotine-triggered effects of adrenaline on the stomach’s musculature” lead to temporary feelings of subsided hunger. Other studies have shown that smokers expend more calories while engaged in activity, which echo conclusions that smokers experience heightened metabolic rates.
There is controversy concerning whether smokers are actually thinner than nonsmokers. Some studies have shown that smokers—including long term and current smokers—weigh less than nonsmokers, and gain less weight over time. Conversely, certain longitudinal studies
Longitudinal study
A longitudinal study is a correlational research study that involves repeated observations of the same variables over long periods of time — often many decades. It is a type of observational study. Longitudinal studies are often used in psychology to study developmental trends across the...
have not shown correlation between weight loss and smoking at least among young persons. Accordingly, while the connection between nicotine and appetite suppression, as well as other physiological responses to nicotine consumption, has been established, whether these chemical and biological reactions translate to smokers being thinner than nonsmokers (at least concerning certain age groups), is still debated. Age may act as a compounding factor in some of these studies. Essentially, a causal relationship has not been explicitly established between physiological effects of nicotine and epidemiological findings about weight among smokers and nonsmokers.
Smoking and Perceptions of Weight Control among Adolescents
While most adults do not smoke for weight control, studies have shown that associations between tobacco use, being thin and desire for weight control do influence adolescents in terms of smoking behavior. Research demonstrates that adolescent girls that strongly value being thin are more likely to initiate smoking. Additionally, girls already engaged in risky behavior for weight control are at increased odds to begin smoking as well.Further research needs to examine trends in ethnicity concerning women and smoking for weight control. So far, studies have shown that young white women may be more prone to use cigarettes to manage their weight. Advertisements for particular brands and types of cigarettes seem target this demographic accordingly.
Several studies have been conducted over the past decade examining this issue in depth. While it has generally been found that white females are more apt to smoke to lose weight, one study found that smoking to lose or control weight is not limited to white females, but is prevalent across racial and gender boundaries. Within all racial groups, it was found that weight concerns and negative body perceptions were a significant factor in an adolescent's decision to smoke. However, it should be noted that the relationship between weight and smoking amongst young men was only statistically significant in white or mixed race groups.
In the past, studies have shown that adolescent girls do consider weight loss or weight control to be one of the positive values of smoking. Overall, young women and girls concerned about weight control, particularly those already using unhealthy weight control techniques, are at a higher risk of smoking.
History of Cigarette Smoking for Weight Loss in Advertising
It was not always socially acceptable for women to smoke cigarettes or use tobacco in public. However, over the course of about fifty years, the tobacco industry would change societal attitudes through the conduits of advertisingAdvertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
and public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
, transforming tobacco use into a desirable pastime for female consumer in both the United States and abroad.
Pre-1920
Prior to the 1920s, smoking was largely a male pastime and was thought of as a tabooTaboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
act for women to participate in. During the 19th century, smoking
Smoking
Smoking is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco or cannabis, is burned and the smoke is tasted or inhaled. This is primarily practised as a route of administration for recreational drug use, as combustion releases the active substances in drugs such as nicotine and makes them...
and cigarettes were commonly associated with loose morals and sexual promiscuity
Promiscuity
In humans, promiscuity refers to less discriminating casual sex with many sexual partners. The term carries a moral or religious judgement and is viewed in the context of the mainstream social ideal for sexual activity to take place within exclusive committed relationships...
. A common prop in Victorian erotic pornography, cigarettes even came to be thought of as an occupational prop of prostitutes and sex workers. Even into the early 20th century, women faced possible arrest if they were caught smoking in public.
1920–1968
During the first decade of the twentieth century, women would begin experience upward socioeconomic mobility with the American women’s rights movementWomen's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
as they gained new civil liberties. By the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, as they experienced growing responsibility and freedom on the home front, an increasing number of women were using cigarettes as a tool to challenge traditional ideas about female behavior. However, it would ultimately be the tobacco industry’s powerful marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
influence that would turn the cigarette from a social liability into an accepted and desirable commodity for women to openly indulge in. However, many question whether or not the cigarette would have become so ubiquitous among women if the tobacco industry had not seized on the liberating social climate of the 1920s and 30s to exploit the ideas of emancipation and power in order to recruit the untapped female market.
Targeting Women's Waistlines
The President of the American Tobacco CompanyAmerican Tobacco Company
The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company...
, Percival Hill, was one of the first tobacco executives to seek out the women’s market. Noting the 1920s penchant for bobbed hair cuts, short skirts and slender figures, Mr. Hill saw the potential in selling cigarettes as an appetite suppressant so that women could achieve the decade’s enviably small waistlines.
"Reach for a Lucky"
Created by Albert Lasker
Albert Lasker
Albert Davis Lasker was an American businessman who is often considered to be the founder of modern advertising. He was born in Freiburg, Germany when his American parents Morris and Nettie Heidenheimer Davis Lasker were visiting their homeland; he was raised in Galveston, Texas, where Morris was...
for Mr. Hill and Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike is a brand of cigarette owned by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top selling cigarette in the United States during the 1930s.- History :...
, the “Reach for a Lucky” campaign is one of the most successful, albeit controversial advertising campaigns in the history of modern advertising. Inspired by other campaigns that offered male consumers a reason why they should smoke a given brand (i.e. the Lucky Strike “It’s Toasted” campaign), Lasker sought to give the female market a reason to smoke as well.
Borrowing from the 19th century slogan of Lydia Pinkham’s
Lydia Pinkham
Lydia Estes Pinkham was an iconic concocter and shrewd marketer of a commercially successful herbal-alcoholic "women's tonic" meant to relieve menstrual and menopausal pains.-Biography:...
Vegetable Compound, “Reach for a Vegetable,” that was marketed towards women for the alleviation of menstrual discomfort, Lasker and Lucky Strike launched the “Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet” campaign in 1925, followed by “For a Slender Figure—Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet” in 1928. The print advertisement was disseminated by Edward Bernays
Edward Bernays
Edward Louis Bernays , was an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda along with Ivy Lee, referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations"...
throughout the fashion industry in numerous fashion magazines and daily newspapers featuring slender Parisian models and proclaiming the dangers of sugar consumption. Famously, Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean...
would also serve as a spokeswoman for the “Reach for a Lucky” campaign.
Early on, the print advertisements simply featured an attractive woman with any of the variations of the slogan above or underneath her, accompanied by a rendering of the Lucky Strike Box. Later, the advertisements would make a more pointed statement about weight gain, featuring either a man or a woman in profile view with his or her noticeably fatter shadow silhouette behind. While these early advertisements would focus on both men and women, later variations would target women specifically.
In The Cigarette Century, Allen Brandt explains that the campaign was revolutionary in its pointed targeting of female consumers as well as in its aggressive marketing strategy that positioned it in direct opposition with candy manufacturers. Shortly after the campaign was released, the National Confectioners Association
National Confectioners Association
Founded in 1884 in Chicago by representatives of 69 confectionery manufacturing firms, the National Confectioners Association is one of the oldest trade associations in the world. It is currently based in Washington, DC....
fired back at Lucky Strike, threatening legal action and publishing anti-cigarette literature that asserted the importance of candy in a balanced, healthy diet. The dispute between Lucky Strike and the National Confectioners Association ultimately drew the attention of the Federal Trade Commission
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
who ordered Lucky Strike to “relinquish all dietary claims for Luckies” in its advertising.
Importantly, this campaign would serve to create a significant association between cigarettes and the feminine values of style, beauty and slimness. Moreover, Allen Brandt writes that the campaign ultimately “promoted a product and a behavior that…possessed specific and appealing social meanings of glamour, beauty, autonomy, and equality” that would come to be synonymous in future cigarette advertising campaigns targeting female consumers. Lucky Strike’s message was highly effective, raising the company’s market share
Market share
Market share is the percentage of a market accounted for by a specific entity. In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 67 percent responded that they found the "dollar market share" metric very useful, while 61% found "unit market share" very useful.Marketers need to be able to...
by more than 200% and making it the most profitable cigarette brand for two years running.
"Torches of Freedom"
After the “Reach for a Lucky Campaign,” Lucky Strike sought to forever change smoking taboos by encouraging women to smoke openly in public. In an infamous publicity stunt, Edward Bernays hired several young, attractive women to march in the Easter Sunday parade
Easter Parade
Easter Parade is a 1948 American musical film starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire, featuring music by Irving Berlin, including some of Astaire and Garland's best-known songs, such as "Steppin' Out With My Baby" and "We're a Couple of Swells."...
in New York brandishing their “torches of freedom”—their Lucky Strike cigarettes. While this campaign did not market cigarettes as weight loss devices, it set the precedent for the new trends in niche market
Niche market
A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing; therefore the market niche defines the specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intended to impact...
ing that would come to shape the future ways in which the industry would posit new types of cigarettes as weight loss aids. Moreover, it would forever change the public’s thoughts on women smoking, transforming the act from a transgressive one into a normalized feminine behavior.
1968-Present
In 1964, the Surgeon General of the United StatesSurgeon General of the United States
The Surgeon General of the United States is the operational head of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government...
released the Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee Report on Smoking and Health. This report lead to the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act in 1965, which would mandate that all cigarette packs display warning labels and would change the ways that the tobacco industry would reach consumers via advertising. In April 1964, with Federal Trade Commission
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
statutes pending, the tobacco industry would take on a program of self-regulation in its advertising. This program would become known as the Cigarette Advertising Code, and as Allen Brandt explains, the program:
- promised to ban all cigarette advertising aimed at those under twenty-one; to ban all unproven health claims; and to ban the ‘virility’ theme. It also assured that models under twenty-five years of age would not be used in tobacco ads, nor would testimonials by entertainers or athletes be allowed. Finally, the code prohibited ads depicting smoking as ‘essential’ to social prominence, distinction, success or sexual attraction.
With these regulations in place, the tobacco industry could no longer directly market cigarettes to women as weight loss aids like they had in the past. Rather, they would come to rely upon more subversive forms of marketing to target women’s concerns with weight management.
Virginia Slims
In 1968, shortly after the enactment of the Cigarette Advertising Code, Philip MorrisPhilip Morris USA
Philip Morris USA is the United States tobacco division of Altria Group, Inc. Philip Morris USA brands include Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Benson and Hedges, Merit, Parliament, Alpine, Basic, Cambridge, Bucks, Dave's, Chesterfield, Collector's Choice, Commander, English Ovals, Lark, L&M, Players and...
introduced a new brand of cigarettes called Virginia Slims
Virginia Slims
Virginia Slims is a brand of cigarette manufactured by Altria Group . The brand was introduced in 1968 and marketed to young professional women using the slogan "You've come a long way, baby." Some media watch groups considered this campaign to be responsible for a rapid increase in smoking among...
. Following in the footsteps of Lucky Strike, Virginia Slims were marketed specifically to young, affluent and independent women with the tagline created by the advertising agency, Leo Burnett
Leo Burnett
Leo Burnett was an advertising executive who created the Jolly Green Giant, the Marlboro Man, Toucan Sam, Charlie the Tuna, Morris the Cat, the Pillsbury Doughboy, the 7up "Spot", and Tony the Tiger....
, “You’ve Come a Long Way Baby,” referencing the history of women’s liberation. With a colorful, pastel package and female-oriented print advertising featuring beautiful and elegant women, Philip Morris sought to create a cigarette that embodied women’s concerns with glamour, style and body image. Moreover, the brand created rift in the market that differentiated between men’s and women’s cigarettes.
But perhaps most importantly, Virginia Slims appeal to women’s ideals about slimness in their name: Virginia “Slims”--a key value that was not lost on consumers. In The Cigarette Century, Allen Brandt recounts United States Supreme Court case Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc.
Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc.
Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., , was a United States Supreme Court case. In a split opinion, the court held that the Surgeon General's warning did not preclude suit by smokers against tobacco companies on several claims...
, in which habitual tobacco user, Rose Cipollone, filed suit against Liggett and Myers
Liggett Group
Liggett Group , formerly known as Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, is the fourth largest tobacco company in the United States. Its headquarters are located in Durham, North Carolina, though its manufacturing facility is 30 miles to the west in Mebane, North Carolina...
, Lorillard and Philip Morris in five separate tort cases, citing their cigarettes as the cause of her cancer. During her deposition, Cipollone recounted her smoking history, noting that she switched to Virginia Slims in 1968 because female-centered marking appealed to her. Brandt writes that Cipollone described the cigarettes as “the first cigarette for women only…designed slimmer for a woman’s slimmer hands and lips…and packed in a slim purse pack.”
While Federal Trade Commission regulations prohibited brands from claiming any health benefits like weight loss, Virginia Slims appeal to women’s concerns with aesthetic slimness with their elongated shape and narrow circumference. While traditional cigarettes
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
are 84mm in length, Virginia Slims come in both 100 and 120mm lengths that give the cigarette a more dainty or elegant appearance. Moreover, with a 23mm circumference, slim cigarettes are said to produce less smoke than traditional cigarettes.
Virginia Slims and athleticism
Cigarettes have a long tradition of being coupled with athletics, health and fitness. As early as the mid-to-late 19th century, Bull Durham cigarettes were the official sponsors of professional baseball, horse racing and golf, and by the 1950s, Camel
Camel (cigarette)
Camel is a brand of cigarettes that was introduced by American company R.J. Reynolds Tobacco in the summer of 1913. Most current Camel cigarettes contain a blend of Turkish tobacco and Virginia tobacco. Early in 2008 the blend was changed as was the package design.-History:In 1913, R.J...
commonly used sports imagery in their print advertisements.
Thus, it was not unheard of when Virginia Slims sponsored the Women's Tennis Association
Women's Tennis Association
The Women's Tennis Association , founded in 1973 by Billie Jean King, is the principal organizing body of Women's Professional Tennis. It governs the WTA Tour which is the worldwide professional tennis tour for women. Its counterpart organization in the men's professional game is the Association of...
in 1970, then known as the “Virginia Slims Circuit”. With this prominent sponsorship came a whole slew of advertisements that featured tennis greats like Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King is a former professional tennis player from the United States. She won 12 Grand Slam singles titles, 16 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, and 11 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. King has been an advocate against sexism in sports and society...
and Rosemary Casals
Rosemary Casals
Rosemary "Rosie" Casals is a former American professional tennis player.Rosemary Casals earned her reputation as a rebel in the staid tennis world when she began competing in the early 1960s. During a tennis career that spanned more than two decades, she won more than 90 tournaments and worked for...
alongside the Virginia Slims logo.
Other Virginia Slims advertisements feature slender women in varying states of activity (dancing, running, ice skating, etc.) thus promoting a general attitude of health and fitness.
New gender issues
A new area of study examines the ways in which tobacco companies are targeting the gayHomosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
community through advertising. Like early niche advertisements that appealed to female consumers, gay tobacco advertisements draw on themes of virility and body image, although it is unclear if gay men tend to smoke to control weight. While the tobacco industry’s marketing of the gay community is legal, many within the community have expressed disapproval of the industry’s pointed tactics.
Smoking cessation
Weight gainWeight gain
Weight gain is an increase in body weight. This can be either an increase in muscle mass, fat deposits, or excess fluids such as water.-Description:...
as a side effect
Side effect
In medicine, a side effect is an effect, whether therapeutic or adverse, that is secondary to the one intended; although the term is predominantly employed to describe adverse effects, it can also apply to beneficial, but unintended, consequences of the use of a drug.Occasionally, drugs are...
of smoking cessation
Smoking cessation
Smoking cessation is the process of discontinuing the practice of inhaling a smoked substance. This article focuses exclusively on cessation of tobacco smoking; however, the methods described may apply to cessation of smoking other substances that can be difficult to stop using due to the...
remains a major aspect of smoking and weight control. People can be discouraged by weight gain experienced while quitting smoking. Weight gain is a common experience during smoking cessation, with roughly 75% of smokers gaining weight after quitting. As nicotine is an appetite suppressant and smokers expend more energy, weight gain due to smoking cessation is generally attributed to increased caloric consumption and a slowed metabolic rate
Basal metabolic rate
Basal Metabolic Rate , and the closely related resting metabolic rate , is the amount of daily energy expended by humans and other animals at rest. Rest is defined as existing in a neutrally temperate environment while in the post-absorptive state...
.
Weight gain can be a deterrent in the smoking cessation process, even if many smokers did not smoke for weight control purposes. Those in the process of quitting smoking are recommended to follow a healthy diet
Healthy diet
A healthy diet is one that helps maintain or improve general health. It is important for lowering many chronic health risks, such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and cancer. A healthy diet involves consuming appropriate amounts of all essential nutrients and an adequate amount of...
and to exercise regularly. Most quitting advice encourages people to not be discouraged should they experience weight gain while quitting smoking, as the health benefits of quitting almost always exceed the costs of weight gain. Studies have shown that weight gain during the smoking cessation process is often lost eventually through diet
Dieting
Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated fashion to achieve or maintain a controlled weight. In most cases dieting is used in combination with physical exercise to lose weight in those who are overweight or obese. Some athletes, however, follow a diet to gain weight...
and exercise.
Conclusions
Some studies show that smokers do generally weigh less than nonsmokers, with other research proving that nicotine increases metabolic rate and suppresses appetite. However, the health costs of smoking vastly outweigh this supposed benefit of smoking.As weight-related advertising has generally focused on women, research has shown that young women are particularly an at-risk population for smoking for weight control purposes, and more research needs to focus on gender and ethnic trends concerning adolescents and smoking, although tobacco companies are starting to aim advertisements at the gay community.
However, the reasons for which people smoke are ostensibly complex, and can rarely be attributed to just a desire to control or reduce body weight. That said, the legacy of the association between being thin and smoking has nevertheless impacted 20th century culture in countless ways.