Stamping Out Smoking

Airbrushed Stamps

It’s ironic, if not wholly hypocritical, that the US Postal Service (USPS) took pains to airbrush out the cigarette from the photographs on which stamps of artist Jackson Pollack (1998), blues guitarist Robert Johnson (1994), playwright Thornton Wilder (1997), and actors James Dean (1996) and Humphrey Bogart (1997) are based. The cigarette in the photograph of pioneering airmail pilot William “Big Bill” Hopson was also airbrushed from the cover image of a 1997 Postal Service brochure Postmark America. In addition, USPS has issued a controversial Prostate Cancer Awareness stamp (1999) and a semi-postal in 1997 (reissued in 2014) to raise money for breast cancer research. Ironically, too, USPS came under fire by health groups in 1999 for including an image of an elegant woman smoking a cigarette in advertisements promoting its global delivery systems.

Gallery of U.S. postage stamps and promotional materials with cigarettes removed by airbrushing and photoshop.

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1997-12-14 - Wall Street Journal - Julie Defalco - Mail Fraud

Mail Fraud

Wall Street Journal
Julie Defalco
December 14, 1997

1994 - American Smokers Journal - The U.S. Postal Service Stamps Out Smoking

U.S. Postal Service Stamps Out Smoking

American Smoker’s Journal
1994

1999-08-23 - Wallstreet Journal - USPS - Men are from Mars Ad

Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus. Even in Argentina.

Controversial United States Postal Service advertisement featuring a woman smoking a cigarette.
Wall Street Journal
August 23, 1999

1999-08-25 - The Wall Street Journal - Glenn Burkins - Postal-Ad Cigarette Burns Up Non Smokers

Postal-Ad Cigarette Burns Up Non Smokers

The Wall Street Journal
Glenn Burkins
August 25, 1999