Early last century, smoking was considered very much a man’s pursuit.
Silent films tended to depict only promiscuous women or prostitutes with cigarettes, and in a 1920 survey, British women’s consumption of cigarettes was considered too low to even record.
But as the Second World War drew near, tobacco firms began seeking new customers – and women were the obvious target.
Breath of fresh air? An early 1930s advert (left) claiming cigarettes help you lose weight. In the 1960s, adverts like this Benson and Hedges one (right) suggested smoking showed a woman's independence and modernity
Advertisers homed in on women’s desire to keep slim, creating the illogical link between smoking and beauty that still persists.
The new advertisements were typically placed in women’s magazines, with one of the first, for Lucky Strike cigarettes in the early 1930s, urging women to ‘Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet’.
The advert said smoking meant ‘you will avoid over-indulgence in the things that cause excess weight, and maintain a modern graceful form’.
In the post-war years adverts suggested smoking was a feminine activity that showed women’s independence and modernity, and often depicted wives sharing cigarettes with their husbands.
Special cigarettes targeted at women were developed.
One brand, De Reszke Minors ‘Red Tips for Red Lips’ – advertised with a picture of film star Gracie Fields – boasted a red tip, which the manufacturers said ‘prevents lipstick from showing on a cigarette, and helps men to preserve their beautiful illusions’.
Craven ‘A’ cork-tipped cigarettes, meanwhile, were promoted with the claim that ‘they do not readily cause finger stain or interfere with make-up’.
By 1968, tobacco giant Philip Morris had launched Virginia Slims, which played upon both the ‘feminine’ appearance of the thinner-than-normal cigarettes, and the continuing belief that smoking helped you slim.
And in the 1970s, when more than half of young women smoked, magazines often featured cigarette adverts promoted with offers of saving stamps towards ‘free gifts’ of household goods – so women could feel they were providing for their families while smoking.
