#ThrowbackThursday: Your Doctor Recommends Camel Cigarettes

#ThrowbackThursday brought to you by Convention Strike. Originally posted on Instagram and Facebook.

As a late-stage 90s baby, I’ve been programmed to associate all medical testimonies with Oral-B toothbrushes, but my great-grandparents probablyhave a different story in mind.

“The first cigarette company to use physicians in their ads was American Tobacco, maker of Lucky Strikes,” says History.com, “In 1930, it published an ad claiming “20,679 Physicians say ‘LUCKIES are less irritating’ to the throat.”” ⁠

Anatomy of an Ad Display from the National Museum of American History located in Washington, D.C. (June 2022).

Lucky Strikes employed some good old-fashioned influencer marketing by sending free products to doctors with their claims. Doctors wrote back, agreeing with the claims and Lucky Strikes ran with it. ⁠Of course, the trend took off within the cigarette industry, but instead of five months of hearing “Renegade-Renegade,” people got lung cancer and a lifetime nicotine addiction. ⁠ For me, the Art of Spin has always been reminiscent of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War in terms of deception. There’s a reason the text is considered a classic and incorporated into thousands of fields. The path to greatness is paved with strategy and tactics. ⁠ Some cigarette companies went as far as creating medical relations divisions — relations meaning tending to the happiness and well-being of interest groups and advertising in medical journals to sell their products. That’s as insane as seeing an Elf Bar ad in Women’s Health. ⁠ Who would be so bold? ⁠ Well, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, for one. The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company is a subsidiary of Reynolds American. According to Reynolds American, they own Vuse, Grizzly, Natural American Spirit, Newport, Camel (pictured), and Lucky Strike. ⁠ ⁠ They acquired Lucky Strike in 2004 (Antique Advertising)⁠. ⁠ The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company is only rivaled by Altria, previously known as Phillip Morris Companies, Inc. They own Marlboro, Black & Mild Cigars, Copenhagen, and Skoal (Altria) and owned Kraft Foods Inc. up until around the time “Glamorous” by Fergie was trending.