Essay 1

How America has changed our behavior towards cigarettes in the 60’s 

            America was not always the anti-smoking country that is portrayed today through the media and support groups. There was a time in American culture in the 60’s where it seemed like all Americans did was smoke. To understand how the American attitude towards smoking has changed it is important to compare the different advertising, the difference in consumption, the differences in medical research on the hazardous effects of smoking and the changing federal policies regarding tobacco. Tobacco affects the lives and health of millions of Americans every year, and will continue to do so until a change is made to the regulation of cigarettes as a whole instead of regulating where you can smoke.

            The biggest change we have seen in smoking from the 1960’s compared to the 2000’s is the advertising. Back in the 60’s there were no rules against tobacco advertising so it was everywhere including the children’s cartoon the Flintstones. “The Flintstones (1960-1965) was sponsored by a cigarette maker” (Ingram) so even the children were being targeted by tobacco companies. Smoking ads also littered magazines getting up to 20 cigarette ads in one magazine such as Penthouse and Playboy, “Cigarettes are the most heavily advertised product in the U.S.” (Jacobs). Until 1964 cigarette companies didn’t have to put the Surgeon General’s warning on their ads or products, where as now they do.

            The biggest difference Americans have seen in regards to tobacco is consumption. “In 1964 over half of adult Americans smoked” (Surgeon General). Now in America less than twenty percent of Americans smoke, around forty-six million. Even soldiers in the U.S. Army were deliberately targeted by cigarette companies; with every Army K-ration the soldiers were given a 5 pack of cigarettes which my have been a contributing factor in many soldiers starting the habit.  Cigarettes were everywhere in the 60’s most offices and even bathrooms were accommodated for smokers. In most homes (even those of none smoking families) they had cigarette jars for guest who liked to smoke. Also you could smoke everywhere and anywhere in the 60’s including planes, elevators and even hospitals. People literally smoked everywhere.

Now in America less than twenty percent of Americans smoke, around forty-six million. This decline is in part due to the excise tax on cigarettes as well as the increased knowledge of the general public to the lasting effects of cigarettes and second hand smoke.  This is also due to the high profile, high visibility media campaigns that are targeting big tobacco companies, exposing their previous ads campaigns focused on increasing usage among children, heralding the medical issues associated with prolonged tobacco usage, as well as highlighting the massive profits they are reaping from what is quickly becoming deemed a “filthy habit”. 

The amount of underage smokers has also significantly decreased as local, state and federal laws have made it more difficult for them to purchase cigarettes.  There is also an increased focus on enforcement of these laws with local retailers including significant fines for those merchants that knowingly sell to minors.  Furthermore, several high visibility successful legal cases against the big tobacco companies has helped fuel the current backlash against big tobacco and provided further incentive in various state and local legislatures to take increasingly bold action in their states. 

            There are now federal policies and state policies to help regulate the use of cigarettes such as bans on where you can smoke; as we all know it is now illegal to smoke in a hospital. Recently President Obama signed a new bill called the “Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, landmark legislation that gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate the manufacturing and marketing of tobacco” (AHA). Whereas in the sixties the only thing regulated was there had to be a smoking and none smoking area in restaurants. There are now also statewide bans on places to smoke as well s advertising, this is why you don’t see cigarette commercials on television anymore.

            While in the 1960’s smoking was seen as a glamorous vice that most stars, national personalities and “cool kids” practiced, in later decades has increasingly been viewed as a more disdainful habit.  This change in view is likely the result of a growing body of medical knowledge, formed off of a growing number of people that are suffering from the long term effects of tobacco usage, that definitively point to a wide range of maladies including throat and lung cancer, emphysema, tongue cancer and other issues.  Furthermore, the growing public awareness of these issues, along with a more aggressive media campaign targeting the big tobacco companies coupled with more proactive legislative efforts at both the federal and state level, have had a significant effect on the number of Americans that currently smoke, but more importantly on those choosing not to smoke and also those looking to stop smoking. 

           

                 

Works Cited

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