The largely unknown Edward Bernays, the American nephew of Sigmund Freud and master propagandist, was the first to use his uncle’s psychological theories about humans to manipulate large masses of people. Bernays is considered by many to be the founder of the public relations industry, often called the “father of PR.” He helped convince Americans that eggs and bacon constitute the true all-American breakfast.
He made consumers believe, with a 1930s Dixie Cup campaign, that only disposable cups were sanitary.
Bernays was also instrumental in building a long-running marketing campaign for the tobacco industry hinged on identification of the product with youth, sex, vitality, and that quintessential American trait: freedom.
In the 1920s, Bernays, working for Lucky Strike, staged a now infamous PR stunt in New York City during the Easter parade. He hired attractive women to march in the parade brandishing lit cigarettes and wearing banners that touted the smokes as “torches of liberty.”
Photos of the women were spread worldwide, and smoking cigarettes became a symbol of liberation for women.
In the 1950s, smoking’s connection with lung cancer began receiving media attention. By 1953, a published scientific report showed a definitive connection between smoking and cancer.
Tobacco bigwigs panicked as cigarette sales declined––and so began the 50-plus year effort by Big Tobacco to downplay the overt cancer link through creative marketing, and (as President Obama said just before signing regulatory legislation last week) an engagement in the “insidious barrage” of advertising targeted to children under 18.
Now maybe, with Obama giving the Food and Drug Administration power to regulate the tobacco industry, perhaps Big Tobacco’s nefarious grip on America will – at long last - go up the flue.
The anti-tobacco legislation is a commendable and inspiring change of the status quo. While there have been some recent criticisms of the legislation and its potential loopholes (i.e. What defines a cigarette?) it sends the tobacco tycoons a clear message: your money can’t buy you out of this one.
We anxiously await the colorful, graphic warning labels, required by 2012, to cover half of a cigarette pack. In Canada, cigarette packages show damaged organs and rotting teeth caused by smoking. Similar images are expected from the F.D.A.
We must still stay on our toes, however. Big Tobacco is creative, and, apparently, has no moral bone in its multi-billion dollar, cancer-ridden body.
Some of the industry’s biggest companies have, according to an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, “filed suit in tobacco-friendly Kentucky.
“They contend that the new law’s marketing provisions infringe their commercial free-speech rights,” and, further, they claim the new provisions, including advertising limitations, keep them from “convey[ing] ‘truthful information’ about a lawful product to adult consumers, not just to young people.”
Shame on you, Big Tobacco, for deceiving the American public for so many decades, and shame too on those promoters so long enticed by your money, who have chosen either to turn a blind eye to the dangers of tobacco or even to audaciously pimp your products without conscience.
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