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Big Tobacco in the Big Apple

How New York City Became the Heart of the Tobacco Industry
…and Anti Smoking Activism

The Vatican Collections

BTBA NYC

Philip Morris Sponsors the Vatican Art Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1984 (1:12)

“Vatican art exhibition’s sponsor has him smoking”

Article
Chicago Sun-Times, page 18
November 27, 1982

“The Vatican Collections: The Papacy and Art” [1 of 2]

Exhibition catalogue
Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York, NY: Horizon Book Promotions
1983-1984

“The Vatican Collections: The Papacy and Art.”

Philip Morris newspaper advertisement for exhibition it sponsored
1983-1984

“Lift up your heart”

Philip Morris magazine advertisement for exhibition it sponsored
1983-1984

“The Vatican Collections: The Papacy and Art” [2 of 2]

Exhibition slide set 1983-1984

“The exhibition’s tour of the United States is sponsored by Philip Morris”

Exhibition slide book
1983-1984

“A Ceremonial Picketing”

Article about DOC “house call” (protest) of Philip Morris sponsorship of Vatican art exhibition
The New York Times
February 28, 1983

“Is the Met Marlboro Country?”

Photograph of DOC (Doctors Ought to Care) “house call” (protest)
1983

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BTBA NYC
 
Lucy color ad for Philip Morris 1953
Grease cover
precious legacy
the vatican collections
1986 Alvin Ailey Dance Theater Ad Sponsor PM 1
inside the whitney at pm

▼ Visit our Exhibitions on Art, Culture, and Tobacco with the links below ▼ 

Museum Malignancy - Tobacco Industry Sponsorship of the Arts

Museum Malignancy: Tobacco Sponsorship of the Arts, explores the ways in which Philip Morris has integrated arts sponsorship into its cigarette marketing and corporate image-burnishing. It also illustrates how art museums in particular have been willing partners in this effort.  Lastly, it highlights examples of activists and artists who have mocked or shamed leaders of museums for accepting tobacco industry sponsorship money. (Click Here)

Creativity in cigarette marketing reached its zenith in the 1980s when advertising agency owner and art collector Charles Saatchi thought of an entirely new kind of campaign to promote the brand Silk Cut. Inspired by the slashed canvases and punctured metal sculptures of artist Lucio Fontana, the visual puns for the words “silk cut” made it the best-selling cigarette brand in the UK. (Click Here)