Article

How the tobacco industry built its relationship with Hollywood

C Mekemson¹, S A Glantz²

¹ American Lung Association of Sacramento Emigrant-Trails, STARS Project, Sacramento, California, USA; staff{at}saclung.org
² Institute for Health Policy Studies and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Stanton A Glantz, PhD, Division of Cardiology, Box 0130, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA;
glantz{at}medicine.ucsf.edu

Objective: To describe the development of the relationship between the tobacco industry and the entertainment industry.

Methods: Review of previously secret tobacco industry documents available on the internet.

Results: Both the entertainment and tobacco industries recognised the high value of promotion of tobacco through entertainment media. The 1980s saw undertakings by four tobacco companies, Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds (RJR), American Tobacco Company, and Brown and Williamson to place their products in movies. RJR and Philip Morris also worked to place products on television at the beginning of the decade. Each company hired aggressive product placement firms to represent its interests in Hollywood. These firms placed products and tobacco signage in positive situations that would encourage viewers to use tobacco and kept brands from being used in negative situations. At least one of the companies, RJR, undertook an extensive campaign to hook Hollywood on tobacco by providing free cigarettes to actors on a monthly basis. Efforts were also made to place favourable articles relating to product use by actors in national print media and to encourage professional photographers to take pictures of actors smoking specific brands. The cigar industry started developing connections with the entertainment industry beginning in the 1980s and paid product placements were made in both movies and on television. This effort did not always require money payments from the tobacco industry to the entertainment industry, suggesting that simply looking for cash payoffs may miss other important ties between the tobacco and entertainment industries.

Conclusions: The tobacco industry understood the value of placing and encouraging tobacco use in films, and how to do it. While the industry claims to have ended this practice, smoking in motion pictures increased throughout the 1990s and remains a public health problem.

Keywords: tobacco industry; entertainment industry; Hollywood; product placement

Abbreviations: AFP, Associated Film Promotions; AMA, American Medical Association; ATC, American Tobacco Company; B&W, Brown and Williamson; FTC, Federal Trade Commission; GASP, Massachusetts Group Against Smoke Pollution; RJR, RJ Reynolds; STAT, Stop Teenage Addiction to Tobacco; TUTD, Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! Project; UPP, Unique Product Placements

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Anderson, S J, Ling, P M (2008). "And they told two friends...and so on": RJ Reynolds' viral marketing of Eclipse and its potential to mislead the public. Tobacco Control 17: 222-229 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Hafez, N., Ling, P. M (2006). Finding the Kool Mixx: how Brown & Williamson used music marketing to sell cigarettes.. Tobacco Control 15: 359-366 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• McGee, R., Ketchel, J. (2006). Tobacco imagery on New Zealand television 2002-2004.. Tobacco Control 15: 412-414 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Adachi-Mejia, A. M., Dalton, M. A., Gibson, J. J., Beach, M. L., Titus-Ernstoff, L. T., Heatherton, T. F., Sargent, J. D. (2005). Tobacco Brand Appearances in Movies Before and After the Master Settlement Agreement. JAMA 293: 2341-2342 [Full Text]  
• Lambert, A, Sargent, J D, Glantz, S A, Ling, P M (2004). How Philip Morris unlocked the Japanese cigarette market: lessons for global tobacco control. Tobacco Control 13: 379-387 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Mekemson, C, Glik, D, Titus, K, Myerson, A, Shaivitz, A, Ang, A, Mitchell, S (2004). Tobacco use in popular movies during the past decade. Tobacco Control 13: 400-402 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Edwards, C A, Harris, W C, Cook, D R, Bedford, K F, Zuo, Y (2004). Out of the Smokescreen: does an anti-smoking advertisement affect young women's perception of smoking in movies and their intention to smoke?. Tobacco Control 13: 277-282 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Wilson, N, Thomson, G (2004). The decline of smoking in British portraiture. Tobacco Control 13: 3-5 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Glantz, S. A., Kacirk, K. W., McCulloch, C. (2004). Back to the Future: Smoking in Movies in 2002 Compared With 1950 Levels. AJPH 94: 261-263 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Sargent, J. D., Dalton, M. A., Heatherton, T., Beach, M. (2003). Modifying Exposure to Smoking Depicted in Movies: A Novel Approach to Preventing Adolescent Smoking. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 157: 643-648 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Cummings, K M, Pollay, R W (2002). Exposing Mr Butts' tricks of the trade. Tobacco Control 11: i1-4 [Full Text]  

eLetters:

Read all eLetters

Correcting the Record

Norman F. Sharp

Tobacco Control Online, 16 Mar 2002 [Full text]

Movie Tobacco; How Long Has This Been Going On?

James Rowland

Tobacco Control Online, 23 Apr 2002 [Full text]