This timeline shows how the marketing of tobacco products, especially cigarettes, has been drastically altered in response to the changing American perception of smoking. With claims of smoking causing health problems, tobacco companies needed to change their marketing techniques in order to manipulate public perception. One can see this manipulation by viewing the marketing technique of cigarettes after times of rising health concerns, such as the banning of cigarettes in multiple states and the cancer scare years. Tobacco companies knew how important the current public perception was to sell their products and used this knowledge to find marketing solutions that would ease the public concerns. Many different instances of changing public perception of smoking will be shown in this timeline, as well as how tobacco companies responded with their marketing.
The Gesture of Smoking Dashboard
Participants
Description
Imagine Mark Twain. Is he smoking a cigar? Imagine Sherlock Holmes. Is he smoking a fantastically shaped pipe? Our popular imagination of the nineteenth century is filled with depictions of tobacco usage. Even Laura Ingalls Wilder’s virtuous Pa would ride into town for some tobacco. In this course, we will explore Transatlantic Nineteenth and early Twentieth-Century depictions of smoking in art, commentary, and popular writings. Outside of poetic and narrative depictions, we will read essays by authors like G. K. Chesterton and A. A. Milne along with anti-smoking tracts and political texts. Our guiding question will be, “What cultural work does this depiction of smoking perform?” All throughout, smoking culture will be analyzed as a multifaceted phenomenon that provides examples of ideological communication, colonialism, intersectionality, and economic and material production. In this class, you will also add your own voice to the conversation through researching in digital archives and sharing your insights for a public audience.
Galleries, Timelines, and Maps
This timeline displays how the perception and act of smoking have changed in the United Kingdom from the 19th century to today. Through this, one is able to see how the perception used to be a lot less concerned and more relaxed about smoking since many people did not know the impact that smoking has. Over time, the perception has turned more negative as more people have learned about the impacts it can have. Likewise, the act of smoking has decreased in the United Kingdom because of this shift in perception. However, this timeline will also show how it is still a prevalent adolescent activity because of the media's portrayal and emergence of e-cigarettes..