The dark side of looking cool

Tobacco's popularity is no accident — it is a product of sustained marketing ploys, and the trend is heading East.


Asad Zaidi June 19, 2011

In an image that would melt the hearts of millions, especially in the wake of his tragic death, teen heartthrob James Dean squints into the camera, a cigarette dangling from his half-closed lips. The cigarette only served to enhance his devil-may-care persona, and at the time, was the epitome of cool.

Associated with charm, sophistication, recreation and rebellion, smoking’s impact on popular culture has been so pervasive that it continues to attract millions of new smokers across the world each year — albeit through misrepresentation. Tobacco is undoubtedly the standout consumer product of our time, one which has truly benefitted from the influence wielded by mass media and zealous advertising. In fact, cigarettes are a unique product because these ‘social aids’ remains popular despite the known dangers associated with them. How did this happen, and why have consumers swallowed the lines that have been fed to them — hook, line, and filter?

Perhaps the earliest modern influences can be traced to Hollywood, in the late Jazz Era leading to the Great Depression and World War II. This was a tumultuous time in the US. Yet it also coincided with the American film industry’s Golden Era, and of the most prolific male icons of the time was Humphrey Bogart. Bogart’s skill lay in his ability to capture the mood of the times, its anxiety, its fears, its passion and its glory. His masterpiece was undoubtedly the film Casablanca, where Bogart plays a man troubled by his past, struggling to find romance in a time of great upheaval — and an inadvertent companion of his throughout the film is a cigarette. It is difficult to over-estimate Bogart’s impact on American culture, indeed every actor after him has been influenced to some degree by his films. A chain smoker, Bogart eventually succumbed to esophageal cancer, but the association of the troubled, angry, tough guy and the cigarette was born with Bogart — and importantly, didn’t die with him.

So, smoking was all the rage in the 40s and 50s, with businessmen and housewives alike indulging in this past time. It came as a great shock then, in 1964, when the US Surgeon General released a landmark report linking smoking to lung cancer. Indeed, so great was the report’s feared impact that it was released on a Saturday so that it would not trigger a stock-market crash. This led to furious campaigning by tobacco brands to show that their cigarettes were safer than the next guys, and the battle of the ads was born. In 1965, the US Congress passed the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act, which said that every cigarette pack must have a warning label on its side stating “Cigarettes may be hazardous to your health.”

In a bid to deal with this blow, cigarette manufacturers found new buzzwords like ‘low-tar’, ‘low-nicotine’ and ‘filtered taste’. Camel even advertised itself as the ‘Doctor’s Choice’, in order to allay public fears. But the advertising campaign that truly took the world by storm was Marlboro’s. The company — or its advertising consultants — realised that any ads that even addressed the concept of health and smoking would simply make people think of cancer. But by using an image of a silent, tough, indomitable cowboy on their cigarette packs, Marlboro took the public’s attention away from the dangerous aspects of smoking altogether, and the ‘Marlboro Man’ became a new paragon of masculine forbearance. After this, Marlboro’s sales jumped severalfold and the image of tobacco was cemented. Of course, toughness isn’t the only thing Marlboro has capitalised on, parental guilt and pride have also been used by the tobacco giant to sell cigarettes.

However, in recent years the image of tobacco has changed over time, at least in the West. A great example to illustrate this transition is the depiction of James Bond. Over one billion people have seen at least one Bond film, making it the world’s best selling franchise.  Bond fans are sometimes fanatical; all his possessions, from his cars, to his suits, to his watches, and of course his cigarettes, are coveted items. Bond lovers will have noticed many differences in the portrayal of the character by the series’ most recent actor, Daniel Craig, compared to his predecessors. In Casino Royale, released in 2006, Bond is more emotionally pliable, he is less ruthless, and he even falls in love. This Bond has fewer gadgets at his disposal and interestingly, is the only man who doesn’t smoke cigarettes. Why is this the case, and why now? Simply because smoking is now perceived as a weakness by the western public, and not a strength. So we are treated to a muscular, athletic character who is less concerned about being suave and more concerned with getting his job done. The image of tobacco has taken a decisive shift in the West, it is no longer cool to smoke, and a healthy lifestyle is what people are beginning to aspire for. Smoking has now been banned in public places in many states in the US, and in Europe, and smokers are found huddled on street corners rather than blowing smoke in people’s faces in high-class lounges.

However, the unfortunate fallout of this is that tobacco manufacturers have shifted their focus to the developing world.  Seven out of every 10 smokers will now belong to the developing world. As tobacco laws became stricter in the West, tobacco companies have expanded their markets in developing countries like Pakistan, which have poorer tobacco control measures and significantly, younger populations. What results is a sustained advertising campaign by tobacco companies aimed at an ever increasing pool of young, susceptible new smokers. In these cases all sorts of associations are connected with tobacco that are both unrealistic and irrelevant. Brands like K2 “Janbazon Ki Pasand” uniquely combined both adventure and patriotism in a single dose, Gold Leaf with its maritime theme symbolised discovery and Dunhill was associated with prestige, all of which would appeal to young teenagers looking for a way out.

It is true that several years have passed since the last tobacco ad was seen in Pakistan, on TV or on the radio, but that certainly has not stopped other sorts of advertising. A simple walk in Saddar, be it in Rawalpindi or Karachi, will reveal a tobacco stall on every corner. Superstores, shopping markets and even pharmacies have large tobacco displays behind their counters. This soft advertising, coupled with the low price of cigarettes, can be devastating. The Big Mac Index helps compare tobacco prices to the cost of living across several countries. In the UK, it costs twice as much to buy a pack of 20 Marlboros than it does to buy a Big Mac; in Pakistan how many can even occasionally afford a meal at McDonalds? Raising taxes on tobacco is a potent way of decreasing tobacco consumption because it puts tobacco out of the reach of the young and the poor. And this is precisely what tobacco companies do not want to happen. Tobacco’s easy availability and low prices make it the drug of choice for this demographic — one out of every two teenagers that experiment with tobacco go on to become lifelong smokers.

Critics on taxes of tobacco argue that smoking is lifestyle choice and that it is up to the consumer to decide whether or not to quit. But in reality, for most smokers it is only the first cigarette that is choice-dependant. And that is the only whiff tobacco companies need. What follows is a powerful addiction and dependence on nicotine that compels the smoker to continue his lifestyle. Free-market theory assumes that all consumers have complete knowledge of all products in the market, yet tobacco is a great example where capitalistic paradigms fail. New consumers are never completely aware of the true consequences of tobacco and this is reflected by the fact that an overwhelming majority of smokers wish that they had never have started in the first place. The real image of tobacco then should only be linked to the diseases it causes: strokes, heart attacks and disfiguring cancer.

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, June 19th, 2011.

COMMENTS (6)

sakura | 12 years ago | Reply i just love the title^_^
faisal arshad | 12 years ago | Reply Great feature.
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