Cigarette ads from the 1920-1950, courtesy of Stanford University web site:
Professor Robert Jackler, MD and professor Robert Proctor, PhD of Stanforf University tell of how cigarette companies would descend on medical conventions to get phony statistics. Doctors were given packs of cigarettes at hospitality booths and then surveyed at the exit to learn what cigarette they had in their pocket. Taglines such as, “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette,” were the result.
We want people to see the audacity and depravity of the industry,” said Proctor. He said this misleading advertising still exists today, just in a different way.
Instead of just a Surgeon General’s warning in text, maybe tobacco companies should now be required to put a stern image of a physician on each package advising against cigarettes.
