Cigarette advertising in magazines for Latinas, White women, and men, 1998-2002: a preliminary investigation.

Publication: Journal of Community Health

Publication Date: 01-APR-05

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INTRODUCTION

Cigarette advertising plays a role in smoking, smoking initiation, and brand preferences among youth and adults, (1,2,11) and (historically) is the major cause of the birth and subsequent increase in smoking among girls and women. (3,11) In the 1920s, the vast majority of smokers were men, and smoking was widely considered unfeminine and hence taboo for women. (3-5) At that time, however, the tobacco industry began to view women as an untapped market of millions who could be coaxed into smoking. Hence, in the late 1920s, ads for cigarettes began to appear in women's magazines (e.g., in House & Garden, Vogue) for the first time, and these were gender-tailored. For example, the ads of 1929 depicted thin women smoking cigarettes, and further linked smoking to weight control by using the caption, "Reach for a Lucky instead of a Sweet". (6,7) Such ads led to a 312% increase in sales of Lucky Strike cigarettes that year, due mostly to women's purchases. (3) Encouraged by this success, tobacco advertising campaigns designed to recruit women to smoking increased in zeal in the 1930s: The number of gender-tailored ads for cigarettes increased in women's magazines, famous actresses were paid to encourage smoking on the radio, and free cigarettes were distributed to women at fashion shows, bridge clubs, and secretarial schools nationwide. Consequently, smoking among girls and women increased (10-fold) from 0.5% before 1929 to 5% by 1939. (3)

Further encouraged by such success, in the 1960s, the tobacco industry began producing new brands of cigarettes for women alone, these accompanied by gender-tailored ads that linked smoking to women's empowerment and liberation--the issue of the 1960s and 1970s. (3,5,8-10) Foremost among these women's brands is Virginia Slims whose 1960s "You've come a long way, Baby" slogan has been changed each decade to continue to attract women to smoking: (3) In the 1970s and 1980s the slogan was changed

to, "We made Virginia Slims especially for women because they are biologically superior to men." In the 1990's it was changed to, "Virginia Slims, it's a woman thing," then to, "Virginia Slims. Find your voice," and then to, "Tame and timid? That goes against my instincts". (3) Additional brands produced for and marketed solely to women in the 1960s through the 1990s include Capri, Misty, Eve, More, Style, Ms., and Satin (to name a few). Ads for these brands appear almost exclusively in women's magazines, and entail captions such as "Dare to be More" (More), "Be the one with Style" (Style), "Spoil yourself with Satin" (Satin), "There is no slimmer way to smoke" (Capri), and "Smoke Pretty" (Eve, a cigarette in a flowered package with a flowered tip). Such ads always entail themes of thinness, independence, and glamour--unlike ads targeting men, which focus on cigarette flavor and on virility. (3-5,8-10)

The marketing of these women's brands, along with intense gender-tailored cigarette advertising (and Virginia Slims' sponsorship of women tennis for 23 years) played a significant role in the increase in smoking among women from the 1920s 0.5% prevalence rate to present rates: (3,11) Today, 23.5% of White, 21.9% of Black and 13.8% of Hispanic women smoke, with rates of smoking among White and Black women nearly equal to those of their male counterparts. (3,12) Because such advertising has been shown to play a role in smoking, smoking initiation, and brand preferences among women and girls, (3,12,23) and because more than 46% of all tobacco ads are in popular magazines, (13) further analysis of the targeting of women with cigarette ads in magazines is needed. (14) Specifically, although studies have examined the targeting of women with cigarette ads in women's magazines (e.g., Cosmopolitan), no study has compared ads in women's magazines to those in men's magazines (e.g., Playboy) to explore possible differences in the number of ads. One...

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