User:Smokingmonkey/Women & Smoking

Women & Smoking
The cigarette industry began a strong marketing campaign geared toward women beginning in the 1920s. These campaigns became more aggressive as time has progressed and marketing in general became more prominent. The practice of marketing aimed exclusively at women has continued into the present day and has now expanded globally.

Pre 1920s
In 1911, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act divided the American Tobacco Trust into several different companies, making market share critical to each company’s survival. The resulting competition spurred innovations in both product and marketing, and eventually progressed to the idea of brands. By 1915, Reynolds’ Camel had become the first truly national brand. Soon to follow were Liggett & Myers’ Chesterfield and the American Tobacco Company’s Lucky Strike. These brands were modern and appealed to the modern sensibilities that were taking over the people of the United States at the time.

1920s-1940s
In the early part of the 20th Century the anti-tobacco movement was aimed primarily at women and children. Smoking was considered a dirty habit and was smoking by women was seriously frowned upon by society. As the century progressed so did women’s desire for equality. The suffrage movement gave many women a sense of entitlement and freedom and the tobacco industry took advantage of the marketing opportunity. Tobacco companies began marketing cigarettes to appeal to women during the burgeoning women’s movement of the 1920s. The American Tobacco Company began targeting women with its ads for Lucky Strikes. Lucky Strike sought to give women the reasons they should be smoking Luckies. They employed ads featuring prominent women, such as Amelia Earhart, and appealed to the vanity of women by promising slimming effects. Most of the ads also conveyed a carefree and confident image of women that would appeal to the modern woman of the 1920s. The ads grew more extravagant with paid celebrity testimonials and far reaching claims of how Lucky Strikes could improve your life. Their most aggressive campaign directly challenged the candy industry by urging women to “reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet.” These aggressive campaigns paid off making Lucky Strike the most smoked brand within a decade. Other companies followed the successful ad campaigns of the American Tobacco Company with their own versions. The Phillip Morris Company introduced Marlboro cigarettes in 1925. Marlboro's were advertised as being as "mild as May" and featured elegant ivory tips that appealed to women. Other brands offered similar ads appealing to a woman’s sense of beauty and style and made cigarettes an alluring part of many women’s lives. The ads linking vanity and beauty were quite women specific and did exactly what they were supposed to do. Fear of weight gain remains a chief reason women continue to smoke. The ad campaigns successfully promoted cigarettes as a product possessing specific qualities including equality, autonomy, glamour, and beauty.

1950s-1970s
The late 1950s and early 1960s brought about a new onslaught of cigarette brands. Each new brand of cigarette introduced during this time advertised its unique benefits. The major new innovation in tobacco marketing was the filtered cigarette. Filters made cigarettes less harsh to smoke and offered the appearance of removing potentially harmful particles. The 1950s began the rebranding of Marlboros from an elite cigarette to an everyman’s cigarette and also saw the introduction of strong Marlboro men, such as athletes, and more famously cowboys. This change in Marlboro branding meant Philip Morris was lacking a cigarette aimed at women. The 1950s also began a boom in advertising for tobacco companies. Ads featuring prominent movie and television stars became commonplace and tobacco companies also began sponsoring television shows, game shows, and other widespread media. One of the most popular was Philip Morris's sponsorship of the I Love Lucy show. The opener featured the two stars of the show with a giant pack of Philip Morris cigarettes. The show Your Hit Parade was proudly sponsored by American Tobacco's Lucky Strike brand. In 1965, it was reported that 33.9% of women were smoking. Virginia Slims came on the market in 1968, and used the catch phrase “You’ve come a long way baby.” This was the first cigarette to be marketed solely as a woman’s cigarette. The cigarettes were longer, slimmer, and overall more elegant and feminine. The ads depicted photos of glamorous women set against photos of women doing mundane tasks such as laundry or housework. 1970 saw the release of Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company's entry into women specific cigarettes, Eve. Eve cigarettes were decidedly more feminine than Virginia Slims. Eve featured flowers or other feminine motifs on both the packaging and the cigarette themselves. The 1970s ushered in the end of television advertising and the beginning of print ads carrying health warnings regarding the dangers of smoking. The 1970s also brought nearly annual reports from the Surgeon General’s office regarding the health consequences of smoking. In 1970, a reported 31.5% of women were smokers. Tobacco companies were barred from advertising on television, but smartly moved the market focus to sponsoring sporting and entertainment events. In 1973, a widely publicized tennis match dubbed “The Battle of the Sexes” featured Billie Jean King, a long-time spokesperson for Virginia Slims, bedecked in the brand’s sequins and colors. American was tennis wild in the 1970s and Billie Jean King was a superstar. Virginia Slims sponsored the Women’s Tennis Association Tour for close to twenty years. The 1970s ended with filtered cigarettes almost completely overtaking the market.

The 1980s and beyond
The 1980s began with the first Surgeon General’s Report on the Health Consequences of Smoking for Women. This report-- published nearly 15 years after the original 1964 Surgeon General’s Report -- came nearly sixty years after tobacco companies began marketing their products to women. The smoking rate of women in 1980 was at 29.3%. In 1987, Brown & Williamson introduced the Capri cigarette, which following suit with other feminine cigarettes was a long, slim, elegant cigarette geared toward feminine hands. 1990 saw the women’s smoking rate at 22.8%, continuing it’s slow decline. The Virginia Slims tennis tour came to an end in 1994, after 23 successful years. This was just one of many broad spectrum advertising methods that ended in the 1980s and 1990s as public sentiments regarding smoking began their shift. The 1990s were marked by continued restrictions on smoking in public and workplaces. The late 1980s and 1990s were also marked by increased marketing to teenagers and young adults. Many of the same marketing strategies used with women were used with this target group. By 1998, the women’s smoking rate had dropped to 22%. 1998 also marked the year of the Master Settlement Agreement. The beginning of the 21st century saw women smoking at a rate of 22.8%, which was a slight increase compared to the previous decade. Advertising and marketing remained static after the 1998 Settlement Agreement. Advertising campaigns looked to present more modern and cutting-edge packaging and language, appealing to a younger and hipper demographic. In 2001, the most recent Surgeon General’s Report in regards to women and smoking was released. RJ Reynolds entered the women’s market in 2007, with its Camel No. 9 cigarette. The packaging is very contemporary in feel, and very feminine at the same time. It features pink edging as a distinct contrast on the black packaging and the interior of the package is lined in pink foil. The cigarettes are sold in light and menthol light varieties, with the latter featuring a teal highlight and foil, instead of the pink of the regular lights. The first decade of this century has also been marked by mass smoking regulations. A multitude of cities, municipalities, and states have passed legislation prohibiting smoking in public places, such as bars, restaurants, and an assortment of other public venues. This is a growing phenomenon, which will help to reduce smoking rates in the United States. The overall smoking rate in the United States has dropped from approximately 46% in 1950 to approximately 21% in 2004.

The future: women, smoking, and globalization
Unfortunately, as smoking levels decline in the developed world they are increasing in the developing world. The major cigarette manufacturers have more than tripled the number of cigarettes exported in the last 35 years. Tobacco companies are using similar strategies to attract women in other countries that they used in the early days of attracting American women. Offering appealing ads that depict cigarettes as modern, empowering, and liberating draws in women smokers who make every effort to be as western as possible. The smoking bans occurring in the United States are happening around the globe. In other countries (as in the United States), tobacco manufacturers circumvent advertising restrictions by sponsoring events, retail endorsements, and advertising in alternative markets such as satellite television channels. These methods have proven quite successful for the tobacco industry. Overwhelmingly, in the global market the trends point toward the market becoming increasingly female in the future, but only time will tell for sure.