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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

Magazines Published in New York

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Cigarette Ads Influence the Coverage of Smoking and Health (1:56)

Virtually every magazine and newspaper published in New York City carried cigarette advertising. Some even published articles that were covertly written by the tobacco companies to try to play down the growing concerns about smoking and health in the 1950s. An example is in TRUE Magazine. An article commissioned by the industry was entitled “Smoke without Fear,” or “Who says smoking gives men lung cancer?” Copies of this were distributed in tobacco shops throughout New York and mailed to tobacco distributors to send to their customers.

One might have expected scandal sheets like the National Enquirer to take cigarette advertisements. And indeed they do to this day, but it’s disappointing to look back and see that publications such as Ms. Magazine were mainstays of cigarette advertising. I spoke with [Ms. publisher] Gloria Steinem on a radio interview that she was giving on WNYC and asked her how she could continue to accept cigarette advertising in her publication–even on the back cover of the Health Issue–and she bristled, became quite angry, and said, “Would you rather us not publish?!”

TIME Magazine and all sorts of others would publish stories on breast cancer or women and heart disease on the front cover–and a cigarette advertisement on the back cover. The Village Voice was a prime vehicle for cigarette advertising and not just the ads themselves, but also ads that wrapped around entertainment schedules such as the Camel Sound Board or the Marlboro Country Music events that they announced.

Of course, Time-Warner, long the publisher of the major weekly magazines in the United States, LIFE Magazine and TIME Magazine, was a major recipient of cigarette advertising dollars. So was Newsweek, which would have a cover story in the late 1970s, “What causes cancer?” and would list the causes of cancer in alphabetical order, starting with arsenic and asbestos. Way down the list was “tobacco smoke.” On the back cover, of course, was an ad for Viceroy cigarettes.

“‘Stop Cancer’ Drive Suppresses Scientific News Linking Disease to Well-Advertised Cigarettes” (4 pages)

Newsletter article
In fact: An Antidote for Falsehood in the Daily Press
George Seldes, Editor
July 28, 1947

“I am taking the liberty of enclosing, for your reference, a copy of ‘Smoke Without Fear’

Cover letter by Harden E. Goldstein (1918-1969), director of the National Association of Tobacco Distributors (NATD), sent to NATD members with a copy of TRUE The Men’s Magazine article.
September 20, 1954

“Smoke Without Fear”

Reprint of an article, “WHO SAYS SMOKING DOES GIVE MEN LUNG CANCER?” by Donald G. Cooley in TRUE The Men’s Magazine
July 1954

“WHO SAYS SMOKING DOES GIVE MEN LUNG CANCER?” (10 pages)

Article by Donald G. Cooley underwritten by the tobacco industry
TRUE The Men’s Magazine
July 1954

“SMOKING AND LUNG CANCER
A point-by-point review of the whole range of evidence

Cover story
CONSUMER REPORTS
June 1963

“A BRIEF REVIEW of the SMOKING — LUNG CANCER THEORY” (8 pages)

Transcript of an address to the Monroe County (Rochester, New York) Cancer Association by Clarence Cook Little, ScD, Scientific Director of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee, and former managing director of the American Cancer Society
April 28, 1960

Doctors Cut Holes in Windpipes, Then…
FORCE DOG TO SMOKE CIGARETTES”

Front page story
National Enquirer
August 8, 1965

“UTERINE CANCER: ARE YOU HIGH-RISK?” / “You’ve come a long way, baby. VIRGINIA SLIMS”

Front and back covers
Harper’s BAZAAR
September 1981

“What Causes CANCER?”/ “Why Viceroy? Because I’d never smoke a boring cigarette”

Front and back covers
Newsweek
January 26, 1976

“There’s a little Eve in every woman.”

Advertisement by Liggett for Eve cigarettes
VOGUE
February 1976

“Merit Breakthrough Remains Unduplicated” / Keeping Fit”

Front and back covers
Newsweek
May 23, 1977

“Chesterfield – Marlboro – Cosmopolitan

Front cover and interior page cigarette advertisements
Cosmopolitan
January 1944

“CAMEL SOUNDBOARD”

Advertisement by the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company for Camel cigarettes
The Village Voice, pages 70-71
September 4, 1984

“NEW! IT’S FILTERED! LUCKY STRIKES AGAIN”

Advertisement by American Brands for Lucky Strike cigarettes
The Village Voice
October 26, 1982

“Low isn’t… lowest. Now is lowest. By U.S. Gov’t. testing method” / “The Beauty Of HEALTH”

Front and back covers
Ms. Magazine
May 1986

“10 packs of Carlton have less tar than 1 pack of these brands” / “One American woman  ten will get BREAST CANCER; Why — and what can be done?”

Front and back covers
TIME Magazine
January 14, 1991

“Marlboro” / “the Health Issue”

Front and back covers
SWING GENERATION
April 1998

“Supersonic Science and Technology Issue”/ “We wouldn’t say it if we didn’t mean it. Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco”

Front and back covers
NYLON
December/January 2001

“CAMEL MELLOW TURKISH BLENDS”/ “WOMEN & HEART DISEASE; Is your biggest worry breast cancer? Think again. ONE OUT OF THREE women will die of heart disease. What you can do to protect yourself.”

Front and back covers
TIME Magazine
April 28, 2003

“FASHION ROCKS”/ “NOW AVAILABLE IN STILETTO”

Advertisement by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company for Came No. 9 cigarettes
Fashion Rocks supplement to WIRED Magazine
2007

GLAMOUR / “BRIGHT NOW  PALL MALL”

Front and back covers
GLAMOUR
July 2007

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