Cigarettes & The Big Screen
September 26th, 2008 by Alex
Back before everyone knew about that little thing called cancer, smoking cigarettes was actually cool. No, beyond cool. You were the man. Why? Because all the movie stars did it.
Turns out that wasn’t a coincidence, but more like a prolific advertising arrangement between studios, actors and the cigarette companies.
Between 1927 and 1951, major studios and tobacco companies partnered on at least 215 cigarette advertising campaigns.
Crazy. Companies like Lucky Strike and others got stars to smoke in each scene and even talk about the “benefits” of their favorite pack o’ butts. Today, science has gotten the better of tobacco companies, kind of, and most people have wizened up. No more movies like Breakfast At Tiffany’s or The French Connection, with cigarettes dangling from the protagonist’s lips.
Now it’s all about product placement and pervasive, subliminal advertising. Ah, how the industry as progressed…
