Analysis: From The Physician To The Marlboro Man

In the article “From the Physician to the Marlboro Man: Masculinity, Health, and Cigarette Advertising in America, 1946-1964” the authors Cameron White, John L. Oliffe, and Joan L Bottorff bring light to how the notions and beliefs between cigarettes, and health, changed after World War II and during the Cold War. According to White et al., the tobacco industry had control over how the public viewed cigarettes compared to health for a fair amount of time. As time went on and research into cigarettes began shedding light on the dangers behind them, so did the advertising mechanisms and tactics used by the tobacco industry. The article begins with discussing the advertisement methods used in the 1940’s by the tobacco industry. At the time the dangers of tobacco use were not known, in fact according to White et al., the tobacco industry made it seem healthy to smoke their cigarettes. They did this most famously through an ad campaign by the cigarette brand Camel which stated, “More Doctors Smoke Camels.” Every one of these ads would include a description as a doctor as a smart man, a scientist, who protects life at all hours of the day, and would include, of course, a man with a stethoscope and a lab coat smoking a cigarette. In a time where American people

goes on to explain how in the early 50’s, studies began being conducted to test the health factors associated with cigarettes. In 1957, the Surgeon General issued a statement saying that there was evidence found pointing towards smoking being a factor in lung cancer. This, and other studies released, led to a huge decline in cigarette sales. After promoting cigarettes as healthy for years’ cigarette companies were now forced to rethink their marketing strategies. The strategy they decided on was to change the public opinion on health as a whole. They said that if anyone was going to inform the public on tobacco it should in fact be the tobacco industry, so they started funding their own