Trends in smoking and cigarettes have risen and fallen throughout the years, in America and in the rest of the world. The general use of tobacco has been documented for almost 8,000 years, its first signs of cultivation emerging in Native American culture, in 6000 BC, and in the region of Central Mexico, around 5000 BC. In these times, Native Americans smoked tobacco for medicinal purposes, as well as in religious ceremonies. In the 15th century, it was gifted to Christopher Columbus when he arrived on the American continent, and became highly profitable in the Old and New World.
Ever since the colonial era, where tobacco became a popular commodity, rates in smoking and the use of tobacco rose almost exponentially, peaking in the mid-1960s in the US. During this time in history, almost 40% of the American population smoked, according to the National Center for Health Statistics in 2005. This rise in the use of tobacco is highly credited to the invention of the cigarette, which became the most common form of using tobacco in the late 19th and 20th centuries; beforehand, most people would chew it in its pure form. The cigarette not only made it easier to ingest tobacco, but it also made it less of an expensive commodity, which enabled more people to have access to the ingestion of nicotine and started the growth of the “tobacco problem.”
Finally, in 1963, 4,345 cigarettes were consumed per adult in that year.
Even though the use of cigarettes peaked during this decade, the first of the studies that linked cigarettes to lung cancer surfaced in the few decades before: in the years of the late-1940s and 1950s, even though people were skeptical over the fact that cigarettes caused cancer in some people and not others. This not only started heated debates in the medical community, but it is also highly confusing, because why would people continue smoking so much even after its dangers were presented?
In fact, there were few drops in the popularity of cigarettes after those studies dropped, but many of these drops and dips lasted only a few months and trends rose again after they were over. The popularization of the cigarette happened for many reasons, not only linked to the economical price drop and availability of such products. Advertising was a big part of this rise in consumption: the packaging back then would incentivize people to buy cigarettes, not warn them about their dangers, and there were often persuasive advertisement campaigns in the media and in movies. Cigarettes were, very often, glamorized in the media and in the production of movies and television.
Because of this advertisement, the cigarette industry only grew, together with the nationwide popularity of other types of tobacco, with milder flavors and an even higher nicotine content. In addition, many companies (in response to the studies that linked cigarettes to lung cancer and other issues) released “filtered cigarettes” and “low-tar” cigarettes, which misconstrued the notion that they were “good for you,” which they obviously weren’t. Additionally, many companies added chemicals and flavorizers to their cigarettes to make them taste better.
One of these added chemicals is called menthol, and while it has an anesthetic effect on the throat as people inhale smoke, it is also highly addictive. In 1963, 16 percent of cigarettes sold in the United States contained menthol according to the FTC.
Before the 1960s, most campaigns that placed themselves openly against smoking were led by non-profit organizations like the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association, both of which were highly concerned with the harmful effects of cigarette smoking. Additionally, they urged government intervention in 1961, writing a letter to the current president at the time, John Kennedy, in which they influenced him to create a commission to further investigate the effects of tobacco and smoking on the human body.
The first Surgeon General’s report on the harmful effects of cigarette smoking was published in 1964, which showed relatively impactful results on the American population, where they have significantly reduced their tobacco consumption. In fact, the aftermath of this report has echoed to today’s society, in which the consumption of cigarettes has substantially decreased ever since the mid-1960s. In 1983, two decades after the peak in consumption in 1963, the annual per-capita consumption of cigarettes had declined approximately 20 percent and in 2004, it declined an additional 49 percent. “An estimated 20.9 percent of American adults, or 45.1 million people, were current smokers in 2005,” according to a CDC study done in 2006.
(Cigarette smoking in the United States, 1965 to 2008)
Attempting to maintain its customer base, the tobacco industry had to adapt to these changes, dramatically increasing its budget for advertising since the 1960s. They would also advertise low-tar, low-nicotine, and low-yield products, once again creating the perception that they are healthier than the alternatives, as well as advertising cigarettes that contained menthol as healthier alternatives than those brands who did not contain the chemical. “From 1963 to 2003, total advertising and promotional expenditures by the five largest tobacco manufacturers increased from $1.5 billion (indexed for inflation) to $15.15 billion.”
Additionally, the industry also tried advertising more intensively to women and young smokers, trying to expand their market. Through these strategies, products like “Virginia Slims” were popularized because their advertising campaigns included and depicted women that smoked as women who were independent, healthy, etc.
They also established advertisements that catered to a much younger audience during this attempt in market-expansion. Most notably, the Joe Camel cartoon character became very popular and appealing to a teenage–and even child–audience. These advertisements took place on television as well as in magazines, further increasing the size of the young audience they were able to reach.
From the decade of 1960 to present days, the rates of tobacco use and cigarette smoking have only declined, both in adults and the youth. However, it is still important to note that even though smokers are smoking less than they did 30 years ago, the percentage of smokers consuming between 5 and 14 cigarettes per day has increased since 1993, while the percentage of “heavy smokers,” (who consume more than 25 cigarettes per day) has decreased.
Tobacco has had a long history, dating back to ancient civilizations and reaching far beyond the foreseeable future, and it is important to analyze this history and why such trends took place in different points of history, and the continued implementation of tobacco control interventions still remains an important part of progress.
Resources:
https://www.nap.edu/read/11795/chapter/4
https://onlineexhibits.library.yale.edu/s/sellingsmoke/page/antismoking
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1931454/
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