A few classes ago, Dr. Strangelove talked about the tobacco industry. He mentioned the efforts of Edward Bernays, the father of modern propaganda. He gave the example of Bernays’ strategy of giving marching women in New York cigarettes as a symbol of freedom. Really, he was trying to remove the stigma of women smoking in public, a practice that was associated with hookers. This way they could sell more cigarettes.
Dr. Strangelove also addressed the industry’s successful campaign to get Hollywood stars smoking in movies to legitimize the habit. Much like the successful campaign to popularize diamonds, this campaign was well known. The fact that the tobacco industry’s effort was open and transparent didn’t detract from its effectiveness one bit.
Brad Pitt smoking
In a 2002 article in the Preventative Medicine journal, Madeline A. Dalton from the Dartmouth Medical School et al discuss the normative effect of movie tobacco use:
Movies and other forms of media shape views of what is ‘cool,’ attractive, and grown-up—all things adolescents try to be.”
This article explains what most of us already know. People, especially young people, are very susceptible to images they are presented with in film. From violent tendencies to sexual practice, adolescents take their cues from Hollywood about how to live their lives.
It is a narrow-minded point of view that children will run out and start car-jacking in record numbers after playing games from the Grand Theft Auto series. However, it is a very believable thought that kids who see Brad Pitt continuously smoking will find it easier to take up the habit themselves.
It is passing strange to consider that there is no resistance or even protest over the obvious product placement of cigarettes in movies despite its powerful normative effect. This silence is even more shocking when one considers that cigarette advertising is illegal in magazines, newspapers, and on billboards.
Seeing stars smoking in movies makes it normal to smoke but no one seems to mind.
