User:Gkingc/Tobacco and Film

Tobacco has been a continuously part of cinematic history. How tobacco companies use Hollywood as a source of advertisement is constantly changing based on restriction changes and consumer desires. Each decade has a new way to combine tobacco and Hollywood.

Silent films
Smoking can be seen in films as far back as ones released during the silent film era. Authors, Theresa St. Romain, Suzanne R. Hawley, Elizabeth Ablah, Bethany S. Kabler, Craig A. Molgaard, conducted an experiment involving tobacco and film and discussed their findings in the article “Tobacco Use in Silent Film: Precedents of Modern-Day Substance Use Portrayals” that was published in the Journal of Community Health. They studied the frequency, type of tobacco use, sex of user, age of user, socioeconomic status of user and general portrayal of user tag. They explain the results writing, “Correlations revealed that positive characterizations were most strongly associated with younger characters and working class or middle class characters. As these also represent the most likely demographics of filmgoers (then and now), the characters most frequently shown using tobacco in a positive context were those with whom the filmgoers could most easily identify” tag. Films studied included Birth of a Nation and Robin Hood. They were high grossing films, thus reaching a large audience. Silent movie stars were also connected to tobacco use because they were featured on trading cards in cigarette packages displaying that tobacco companies were possibly using film and stars to advertise began before talking movies were invented.

1920-1950
Overview Facts (*)200 movie stars simultaneously endorsed a tobacco brand and their studio’s releases (**)Two-thirds of the top 50 box office actors supported tobacco brands for advertising purposes”. tag.

1927
Tobacco companies made a major move that established a relationship between themselves and Hollywood in 1927 when American Tobacco and Radio Corporation of America (RCA) signed a deal together tag. Not long after did other studios make similar deals with tobacco companies tag. At this time actors were in contracts with one studio and could not work outside of it. This meant that a star in contract with a studio was required to do advertisements for the different brands like Lucky Strike and Camel. Tobacco companies used written testimonials as one way to advertise and sponsoring radio programs featuring their actors tag. American Tobacco was the first company to use Hollywood and star testimonies and set them apart from other tobacco companies for many years. The advertisements were beneficial to both sides because they promoted the cigarette brand and the movie. The testimonials were written by the advertising company, Lord & Thomas, and signed with famous names tag. An example is given in the article “Signed, Sealed and Delivered: ‘Big Tobacco’ in Hollywood, 1927-1951.” They wrote: Placed above the headline, ‘The Captivating Voice of the Delightful Actress, Alice Brady,’ Brady’s testimonial read, ‘I use Luck Strikes as I find they not only protect my voice but afford me the greatest amount of genuine enjoyment tag. Brady did not write that testimonial, but instead it was created for her and she signed her name. Al Jolson was one of the first stars they used because of his instant fame after being in the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer tag.

1929
The Federal Trade Commission ordered a cease and desist order against American Tobacco, which prohibited testimonials unless written by the endorser, truthful, accurate, and appropriate for the driver and the amount of money they paid for testimonials to be exposed. This rule was removed in 1934 tag.

1937-1938
Lucky Strike’s new Hollywood campaign from 1937-1938 was founded in “mutual using”; meaning both the studio and American Tobacco had aims for the campaign. Studios wanted to use tobacco advertisement as a method to expose their films and give themselves a competitive advantage over other studios tag. American Tobacco saw the campaign as a vehicle to “exploit Hollywood’s top stars, regardless of their studio affiliation. For Lord &Thomas, the interests of the stars and studios were secondary to Lucky Strike’s sales goals. During that year, Lucky Strike financed national advertising for more than one in five big budget films released by major studios, MGM, Paramount, RKO and Warner Bros tag. This is an example of only one campaign, but there were many others as well.

1950-1970s
There was a decline in smoking frequency in films due to publicity about diseases linked to smoking, fast disclosure advertising-driven television, the change of tobacco advertising and sponsorship dollars, and analysis of studio control over the stars and theatre networks tag.

1980s
Product placement of tobacco products in films started to slowly return to having a major presence in Hollywood. Both advertising firms and tobacco companies made sales pitches to have a specific brand of cigarettes in a film tag. In “How the Tobacco Industry Built its Relationship with Hollywood,” C Mekemson and S A Glantz write an example of this. A product placement firm that was promoting the movie Eight Men Out made a sales pitch to Ligget and Myers. They wrote: based on its story, cast and subject matter, this film will appeal to young audiences attending to see their favorite leading actors…Billboard sponsorship provides an opportunity to deliver subtle but powerful institutional and product messages to a young group, still in the stages of forming purchasing habits’.” tag. While Ligget declined because of the company policy that said they could not have its products in films aimed at young audiences, it is exactly like other pitches during the time that were being enacted, but were successful. Tobacco companies desired to recruit and retain smokers and are used in films as a way to maintain its social acceptability tag. Each tobacco company searched for new innovative ways to include smoking in Hollywood. RJ Reynolds worked to be placed in movies, have person contacts with celebrities in order to encourage them to smoke on air and as Glantz and Mekemson say to supply green rooms of major television shows, like the Tonight Show, with their tobacco products. RJ Reynolds had another strategy, “writing and placing favorable stories in print media” ] tag. Glantz and Mekemson clarify what this means, “Examples included a story about “Paul Newman practicing lighting two cigarettes for a remake of the New Voyager”…They also arranged “‘or celebrities to be photographed with the products’ by working with fashion photographers to ‘have stars and models pose with cigarettes’” tag. Other companies, Philip Morris, American Tobacco, and Brown and Williamson” had many of the same tactics, but each tried to come up with something innovative and gain the competitive advantage.

1989
In 1989, congressional hearings arose in attempt to gain controls of tobacco placement in films. The outcome of the hearings was tobacco companies admitting to product placement advertisement and publicly said they would put an end to it. But smoking in movies has increase since then, not declined tag. Tobacco companies had to learn to adapt and find new ways.

Advertising techniques used in 1980s by the different companies laid the groundwork for what we are experiencing today.

Present Today smoking and film is connected through celebrities and their usage of tobacco. Top gossip magazines and websites display pictures of celebrities smoking, including fanpop.com, theinsider.com, People Magazine, US Weekly, and many more. This is one of major ways tobacco companies’ brands are exposed to consumers.