9781422272305

1 CHAPTER

The Early Years of Tobacco Advertising Until relatively recently, the marketing and advertising of tobacco products represented one of the most insidious and manipulative programs affecting public health in the United States and around the world. Through clever advertisements and misstated claims, tobacco companies were able to tempt tens of millions of people into trying tobacco products over the years. Due to the extremely addictive nature of nicotine, many of these people wound up suffering from smoking-related diseases that significantly shortened their lives. Today, most educated people are aware of the dangers of tobacco abuse, and many of them avoid products like cigarettes, chewing tobacco, or electronic vapor devices. However, it is important to understand the history of tobacco marketing. Modern readers may find it hard to believe that advertisements once claimed cigarettes were healthy—but it is true. Clever marketing and advertising fooled entire generations into smoking cigarettes. The tobacco companies fully understood the dangers of their product, but the money was too great to ignore. Their goal with advertising was to find “replacement smokers” for those who died using their products. Often, these replacement smokers were teenagers or young adults.

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