When Doctors Prescribed Smoking: A History of Tobacco Promotion

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In 1946, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco began making bold claims in its advertisements: "Most doctors choose Camels over other cigarettes!" They backed up this "fact" with numbers: "We interviewed 113,597 doctors from all over the coast!" A more accurate version would sound like this: "We interviewed 113,597 doctors from all over the coast … by bribing them with free Camels!"

The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco ad campaign, referring to doctors, ran in most national magazines for six years, and TV commercials showed men in lab coats contentedly sipping cigarettes, reading thick textbooks or making phone calls.

Smoking cigarettes during this time period was as ubiquitous as drinking soda. Although it was still several decades before a full-scale tobacco control campaign, concerns about its negative health effects began to emerge as early as the turn of the century. Major players such as the American Tobacco Company, Philip Morris, and R. J. Reynolds have sought to calm the American public by using advertisements involving doctors.

Otorhinolaryngologist Robert Jackler of Stanford University and his wife, Laurie, founded a group to research the effects of tobacco advertising. They have collected about 50,000 original advertisements taken from various magazines. The collection contains bizarre and even absurd examples - with images of storks taking breaks for a smoke break; cigarette parents raising cigarette children; and children who smoke, whose parents are watching and giggling. Some of the most surreal advertisements (from a modern perspective) show doctors touting the benefits of smoking certain brands of cigarettes. In April, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History opened an exhibit called Most Doctors Smoke Camels, which showcases many of these American artifacts. Jekler says many visitors looked at advertisements and conflicting health claims with disbelief.

In the 19th century, it was widely believed that smoking could cure a number of diseases. The Cigares de Joy ad promised "instant symptom relief" for asthma, bronchitis, hay fever and flu. Likewise, Marshall's Cubeb Cigarettes could cure all of these diseases as well as rid the body of accumulated mucus. Inhalation of smoke has been a perennial public health problem, but prominent European doctors encouraged smoking cubeb peppers, datura, and even tobacco to help relieve coughing fits. The proliferation of these "therapies" has coincided with the rise in popularity of tobacco smoking as a symbol of economic independence and masculinity.

In the 1900s, everyone seemed to have picked up this habit.

In 1930, American Tobacco announced for the first time that "20,679 doctors found its products less annoying." In the ad, the doctor offered with a big smile a pack of Lucky Strike, the most popular cigarettes at the time. American Tobacco hired advertising firm Lord, Thomas, and Logan, which sent cigarette packages to doctors in 1926, 1927, and 1928 asking them to answer the question: “Did Lucky Strike … companies?"

For decades to come, newly minted Philip Morris will claim its cigarettes are the least annoying, as proven by science and eminent physicians' publications in medical journals. The company insisted that the addition of diethylene glycol (a poison) to the tobacco made its products more throat-friendly. She sponsored researchers to prove this. In fact, the basis for their claim was an experiment in which two pharmacologists at Columbia University injected the above chemical into the eyes of rabbits. Other researchers have disputed their findings.

Reynolds also made what is arguably the strangest announcement in the history of tobacco advertising. She insisted that her cigarettes help speed up digestion by increasing alkalinity ("To improve digestion, smoke Camels!"). However, this advertising campaign was soon banned.

Two years ago, Dr. Jekler published an article on the tobacco industry's lesser-known advertising strategy that was used from the 1930s to the 1950s. To win the favor of doctors, tobacco companies have advertised in most weekly and monthly medical journals - and in particular in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Jekler's team has collected over 500 magazine advertisements. "Not a single case of throat irritation from smoking Camels!" - reads the announcement in JAMA from 1949. "Place your stethoscope on a pack of Kools and listen," a 1943 ad beckons. Philip Morris flirted with the absurd in a 1942 ad: “What? Prescribe Cigarettes ?!"

“Despite more and more data on lung cancer and chronic lung and heart disease, medical journals, especially JAMA, did not remove cigarette ads because they made a lot of money from them,” explains Jekler. In 1949, ZHAMA received 33 times more income from advertising of tobacco products than from membership fees.

According to Jackler's article, JAMA's editor-in-chief (1924-1949) Morris Fishbein slowly evolved from tobacco critic to consultant throughout his career. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Fishbein was a fierce critic of cigarette advertising, publishing books and articles on the topic. However, Fishbein soon began to work with Philip Morris, and his skepticism gradually evaporated in the following years. He corresponded with the company, helping create advertisements, and even wrote an article defending the use of diethylene glycol after 75 people died of diethylene glycol poisoning in 1937. Fishbein, who ran the magazine throughout the 40s, opposed all who did not support his advertising practices, and even ignored the calls of the board of directors. When medical protests erupted against cigarette advertisements in JAMA, the magazine began to slow down and finally ceased publishing advertisements of tobacco companies in 1954. In the same year, Fishbein took a job at Lorillard Tobacco and received a decent salary. In 1969, he publicly questioned smoking and cancer, calling it "big propaganda."

In 1971, television and radio advertising of tobacco products was banned, and the Master Settlement Agreement limited other forms of tobacco advertising. Tobacco companies can still advertise in print, although today they face many more restrictions.