Edward Bernays
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Edward Louis Bernays was an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations". While credited with advancing th
"Girl in Red" advertisement for Lucky Strike; shot by Nickolas Muray, a photographer enlisted by Bernays to help popularize feminine thinness and cigarette smoking
Torches of Freedom
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"Torches of Freedom" was a phrase used to encourage women's smoking using the early twentieth century first-wave feminism in the United States. Cigarettes were described as symbols of emancipation and
Edward Bernays
…individual autonomy and democratic values. His best-known campaigns include a 1929 effort to promote female smoking by branding cigarettes as feminist "Torches of Freedom", and his work for the United Fruit Company in the 1950s, connected with the CIA-orchestrated overthrow of the democratically elected Guatemalan…
1900 cigarette ad
A 1914 ad targeting women. Tobacco companies have long targeted the female market, seeing it as a potential growth area.
The "Torches of Freedom" idea saw a resurgence in the 1990s far beyond the borders of America, where tobacco advertising was now becoming increasingly restricted.