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TOTAL LICENSING
woman. Gangsters smirked and flipped their cigarettes Or was it? Research Center) staffed
after another night of mayhem. Actors could illustrate Some medics and public health “nuts” began to with the industry’s own
mood and action by the way they held the cigarette research into the causes of rising lung cancer and heart scientists or neutral
during the filming. problems. New ads appeared. Lucky Strike asked you scientists sympathetic to
For younger men, increasingly, smoking became a rite of to “ask your doctor” because like most of the population its cause. Research was to
passage. It was the proof that they were not sissies, had our doctor probably smoked and it was hard for him or be answered by research
left boyhood behind and were now really adult her to castigate smoking. directed to exonerate
(N) Many later arguments by the tobacco lobby (P) Unlike infectious diseases which could be researched the industry. Grants were
reaffirmed over and over again that smoking was a in laboratories and whose germs and bacilli could be dispensed.
voluntary choice by informed adults and their right to observed with ever stronger microscopes or battled In 1974 per capita
make individual choices. with the newly discovered penicillin, smoking related cigarette consumption
With the 1930s and 1940s smoking by women was complaints took years to develop and be noticeable. As had remained the same as 10 years earlier – 4100
at first officially frowned upon: Good Housekeeping deadly as they were in the end, they were also mostly cigarettes per year. Obviously the “free” unbiased
1929: “the odor of stale tobacco does not add to a not curable even if the smoker could be convinced to consumer continued to like their “smokes”. Filters, less
girl’s charm, neither do nicotine stained fingers, nor will stop at a younger age. tar, lighter smokes became subjects of debates and
the repulsive infections of the mouth and throat which (N) The industry demanded “definite proof”. You preferences.
sometimes afflict smokers”. could not outlaw a whole industry on supposition and (P) Then a thunderbolt hit the scene. A Japanese
(P) No wonder the tobacco companies, ever in search suspicions. This was radical and offended the rules of epidemiologist, Takeshi Hirayama of the Tokyo Cancer
for larger markets sponsored ads like Lucky Strikes: “free enterprise”. Center Research Institute studied cancer amongst
“light a Lucky and you’ll never miss sweets that make (P) In 1962, enter President John F. Kennedy and his the non-smoking wives of smoking husbands (Japan’s
you fat”. Surgeon General, Luther Therry. Therry reports that social structure of the time produced a lot of those)
By now Prohibition, in any case, became a failure and there are by now some 500 billion cigarettes sold in the – “women whose husbands smoked 14 cigarettes a
was repealed. This experience put a strong long-lasting USA and these are being smoked by some 50% of all day had a 40% greater chance to develop cancer than
damper on drives to put the government in charge of American males and some 33% of American females. non-smokers. If the husband smoked a pack or more
legislating social behavior. It is further postulated that some 200,000 people a the difference rose to 80%. (250,000 adults over 40
year are dying from smoking related causes. years of age participated over a multiple year study).
PUBLIC RELATIONS TACTICS (N) The industry still wants proof of a causal relationship. American studies followed and by 1980 the magazine
Public Relations took over the stage. Edward Bernays, On television, the popular “Marlboro Man” keeps “Science” wrote that “respirable suspended particles in
Guru, Prophet and creator of the public relations smoking and riding his horse in the wide untamed enclosed spaces exceeded the legal limits for industrial
industry, had grown up in America. A nephew of American Plains. Max Cutler, a cancer surgeon is pollution by 250 – 1000 times”.
Sigmund Freud, he delved into the unconscious and quoted: “simply because one finds bullfrogs after the (P) Suddenly “second hand smoke” became a new
taught industries and also the cigarette industry. rain it does not mean that it rained bullfrogs”. Witty issue in the debate! Some states started to pass “clean
From this vantage point he subtly created a demand and memorable. indoor air acts” outrunning the much slower federal
that was better and seemed less self serving than (P) Prominent television personalities famed for smoking, government.
naked huckstering so often done by overly aggressive such as Arthur Godfrey and Edward R. Murrow, chain (N) The industry promoted calls for “smokers’ Bill of
advertising. He recruited debutantes to smoke “torches smokers both, succumb to lung cancer. Rights”. But the tables had turned and for the first time,
of freedom” when they were photographed marching Increasingly the scientific and medical experts begin to smokers sought defense against a now non-smoking
with cigarettes in New York’s famed Easter Parade in split into opposing camps and by 1969 the Surgeon majority. A new Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop,
1929. This was the liberated woman who could no General, Luther Terry, is joined by Federal Trade pointed to airplanes, offices, restaurants, etc. The FDA
longer be dominated by her male companions. Commission chairman, Earl W. Kintner, and with the approved Nicoret replacement therapies via chewing
If Lucky Strike had captured the female following, backing of the American Cancer Society, wants to add gum, patches, and such. David Kessler, a new FDA
Camel cigarettes made an end-run around them to this warning on cigarette packs and ads: Caution: commissioner claimed that cigarettes had “intended”
attract the young smoker for “Camels” hoping their cigarette smoking is dangerous to health and may the nicotine in cigarettes to make them a “drug delivery
brand of loyalty, once gained, would endure over the cause death from cancer and other diseases. system”. Did nicotine create addiction?
decades and prepare the market of the future. (N) Industry lawyers begin to fight “presidential Now the “Tobacco Wars” had reached fever pitch!
My son and I stood transfixed with others on Times bureaucracy” (the FTC) by appealing to Congress (N) Back in December 14, 1953 the CEOs of all major
Square when the famous “smoking man” poster came where they have many friends, among whom are many tobacco companies had met at New York’s Plaza Hotel
into the public eye many years ago. It was considered who have inherited wealth from tobacco farming, or and began the fateful practice of meeting together,
a technological miracle; it had a huge man’s face, open are voted for by farming interests. Finally the agreed not to discuss prices or competition (that would have
mouth spouting cigarette smoke. Of course, a machine official warning becomes the less alarming: “Caution: been illegal!), but overall issues affecting or threatening
was behind the open smiling mouth that was spewing cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health”. the industry as a whole. “To win friends rather than
the smoke. This was the famous “Camels” cigarette ad, Two years later in 1971 the Act is finally passed to create enemies”, said T.V. Hartnett, president of
that sooner or later, every visitor to New York City would announcing: Warning: The Surgeon General has Brown & Williamson. Trade associations are legal and
marvel at. It stayed in this prominent location from determined that cigarette smoking is dangerous to your so was this (which incidentally created the previously
1941 (in that ad it featured a soldier), until 1966 - health. mentioned TIRC.)
blowing 15 perfectly round smoke rings per minute into (N) Now, of course, you may agree or disagree with the
the air. Prominent celebrities in the sports field like New Surgeon General and what he thinks. That’s fair, isn’t it? LITIGATION AND DAMAGE SUITS
York Yankees’ Babe Ruth was on collectors’ baseball There are always two sides. Aren’t there? In the progress of time a new phenomenon had risen
cards together with other sports greats inserted in What a difference a few years, a bit of clout, and a few in the USA. The development of a class of trial lawyers
cigarette packs. words can make. who sought, on contingency, to interest damaged clients
When World War II broke out cigarettes again were the (P) One might assume that a large impact on smoking to claim their damages under “tort” statutes based on
reward for the war weary fighting man and woman in had now been created; surprisingly that was the reliance of such client consumers on warranties or im-
the arena of combat, and the stressful campaigns world- case. True “Joe Camel” and the Marlboro Man were plied promises used by ever bigger companies in their
wide. Defeated Europe by then had learned to love and eliminated along with TV ads, radio and billboards, so ever bigger consumer marketing campaigns. These
desire the American cigarette. Master Sargeant Medina teenagers now had to send their older friends to buy provided the attraction of a big jury award to be split
received cases of cigarettes for his ship and during cigarettes for them. All in all, however, the country with the client. This new growing industry was called
landings in Swansea, Le Havre or Antwerp, he doled out moved along its accustomed path. Liability Tort Litigation. Some practitioners saw them-
to each soldier, sailor or merchant marine a carton or (N) Alerted to the importance of dealing with Congress, selves as consumer advocates and protectors and some
two for trading purposes. Together with American silk the cigarette industry developed its lobbying strategies very frankly were in it for the money. The practice had
stockings, a lot of friendship could be purchased during and continued to demand “fairness” and “proof”. It grown tremendously with the judicial acceptance of
shore leave. It was all fun and games! invested large sums in a “TIRC” (Tobacco Industry class suits joining together a class of similar claims, so
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