How War Made the Cigarette

when the first World War Began everything was about to change and the cigarette was no exception before 1914 the cigarette was considered the vice of the underclass of criminals foreigners outcasts and Rogues it was seen as a blight on the health of the average American and a harbinger of the collapse of the Republic but when the war ended 4 years later the cigarette suddenly exploded in popularity no longer was its smoker a pariah but a patriot how did this happen how did the cigarette go from nothing to a Titan of the world it has everything to do with war it's the story of how the world's militaries briefly became the largest cartels in the world addicting millions of soldiers and sending them back home to spread their habits it's how advertisers exploited that fact and how the United States sold the cigarette to a world ravaged by conflict this is the story of how war made the [Music] cigarette but first this video is made possible by delete me a data privacy company that makes removing your personal information from the internet as simple and easy as possible if you don't live in a country that's protected by European data regulations your data has likely been vacuumed up up by data Brokers and is being sold to third parties for profit usually they use that data to Target you with specific ads but the same data can also be used to discriminate against you when applying for health insurance or when being offered a job basically out there right now is a profile on you that any company can pay to see this data can also be used by frauders and criminals if any data broker is hit by a leak which means that your personal information suddenly becomes a valuable tool in the Arsenal of somebody trying to scam defraud or impersonate you delete me believes in the right to privacy and the right to removal and they make removing this information from the internet a lot easier with just a few clicks you're ready to go unlike other companies delete me's sole focus is removing your personal information from the internet so their services are a lot more targeted and effective get 20% off delete me Us's consumer plans when you go to ww. jooin delet me. com Imperial and use the promo code Imperial at checkout that's join delet me.

com Imperial anyway that's all let's get back to the video Society in the late 18 early 1900s was not particularly fond of the cigarette it was a mysterious novelty that most were ignorant of and in the dim light of ignorance is born fear and Prejudice in Great Britain cigarettes were linked with a lack of Manliness and effeminacy in the United States it was associated with immoral miscreant up to no good or criminals or foreigners whose Customs may as well have been alien as far as the American middle class was concerned reflecting that mood one particularly alarmist 1886 New York Times article wrote that quote the decadence of Spain began when the Spaniards adopted Sig ettes and if this pernicious practice obtains among adult Americans the ruin of the Republic is close at hand influential Americans such as Henry Ford also railed against the cigarette in this 1914 pamphlet he argues that if you study the history of almost any criminal you will find that he is an inveterate cigarette smoker early Health reformers too criticized the product on the basis that it was unhealthy and that it threatened to enfeeble an entire generation of Young Americans who were seen to smoke it disproportionately Temperance activists likened the cigarette Vice to that of alcohol and its destructive side effects creating the unenviable association with a product that would soon be outlawed in the entire country under prohibition but of course the cigarette never met that fate between 1895 and 1921 50 states banned cigarette sales but those bans were short-lived by 1927 they had all been repealed in fact in the face of all that opposition between 1900 and 1920 per capita consumption saw an increase of more than a [Music] th% the war against the cigarette never reached the same Heights as the war against alcohol another conflict rudely dered naed it before it could reach its peak the first world [Music] war the first World War caused a massive uptick in cigarette consumption in most participating countries in the United Kingdom consumption of the cigarette nearly doubled between 1914 and 1920 coming to represent the majority of tobacco sales in France too cigarette sales Rose from 3. 7 to 4. 9 9 billion from 1913 to 1919 a 31% increase in 6 years a year before war broke out in 1914 Germany produced roughly 13 billion cigarettes when records became available again in 1925 they were producing 30.

5 billion the US was no exception its per capita consumption rates more than doubled between 1915 and 1920 20 some estimates say it tripled a significant cause of this increase was the popularity of cigarettes among soldiers they were included in the rations of us British French and German servicemen as a means of improving morale in the trenches it was recognized early on that the nicotine present in a cigarette was an effective means of calming the nerves of soldiers who were inescapably Sur rounded in every waking moment by all manner of Calamity and catastrophe the cigarette was a solace in a Sea Of Mayhem a slim white and brown soldier standing Rank and file in a trench-like box of its own helping to wash away the misery of War so militaries became drug dealers addicting their soldiers to cigarettes hoping to keep Spirits High reflecting the importance the US Army placed on smoking General John persing the commander of the American expeditionary forces in Europe stated you ask me what we need to win this War I answer tobacco as much as bullets tobacco is as indispensable as the daily ration we must have thousands of tons without delay the British minister of food David Thomas also sang its praises is he said our men would eat a great deal more if they did not have tobacco acknowledging that smoking reduced the appetite and thus lowered the amount of food required by the average Soldier the cigarette just happened to be the most effective vehicle for the delivery of tobacco and nicotine small and compact it was the Natural Choice over cigars or pipes in a logistics calculus the this along with psychological and physiological effects that were deemed beneficial in Wartime meant it suddenly became a product very much in Vogue indeed even former Temperance activists who had opposed cigarettes just prior to the war had suddenly changed their Tunes the young men's Christian Association or YMCA a formerly Ardent opponent of smoking whose founder stated cigarettes were quote a growing evil was now ly handing them out to soldiers on the front lines and in military cens what was the rationale behind this change of heart well smoking cigarettes was seen as relatively less harmful compared with the likes of alcoholism prostitution harder drugs and gambling the YMCA reasoned that cigarettes could be used to keep soldiers away from these more Sinister activities as for the concerns about health well denying cigarettes to soldiers on the basis of health risks seemed rather ridiculous considering they stood amidst shell and trapnel day after day on the front one YMCA member explained the absurdity of the matter in a brutal fashion hundreds of thousands of men in the trenches would go mad or at least become so nervously inefficient as to be useless if tobacco were denied them many a sorely wounded lad has died with a cigarette in his mouth whose dying was less bitter because of the poison pill the argument that tobacco May shorten the Life 5 or 10 years and that it dulls the brain in the meantime seems a little out of place in a trench where men stand in Frozen blood and water and wait for death while the cigarette helped soften the tedium and Trauma of life in the trenches it addicted hundreds of thousands of men to a harmful stimulant that they did not need during peace time World War I did eventually end and when it did the US Army sent home a new generation of addicts it had made dependent on the cigarette and like clockwork the Western world's markets smelled an opportunity an opportunity to sell more product Benedict Crowell the assistant director of War Munitions in the United States estimated that 95% of All American soldiers used tobacco in one form or another during the war cigarette companies were aware of this and they were eager to capture these potential new customers as soon as they came home from service abroad the cigarette manufacturer Chesterfield released this set of adverts in January of 1919 just 2 months after the end of hostilities in Europe they depicted servicemen from the Air Force Navy and Military puffing away at a mild Chester Field creating an explicit association between the cigarette and the soldier in doing so they managed to make smoking patriotic where once cigarettes were lumped together with America's ills and immorality they were now associated with far more positive values Freedom democracy and dity War had just popularized the cigarette just as importantly the war and these ads disrupted the perception of the cigarette as an effeminate Vice meant mainly for quote boys and women as one 1884 New York Times article put it prior to the first world war the pipe was seen as the manliest means of consuming tobacco but now the cigarette had taken its place by becoming the solders Habit it had transformed itself into the quintessential symbol of American masculinity but it wasn't just in the United States that the cigarette became associated with war and patriotism in March of 1917 the British tobacco manufacturer Wills released a set of 24 cards included in their cigarette packs each card depicted servicemen from different branches of the military and on occasion the less famous supporting casts of the war a master stroke of marketing this connected cigarettes with the bravery and sacrifice of the average person toiling away in the machine of War whether they be on the front lines or in the factory every drag and puff of a will cigarette was henceforth imbued with patriotic fervor another clever element of including cigarette cards although Wills definitely weren't the first to do so was that it encouraged smokers to buy more packs until they completed the full set of 24 it gamified the addiction despite these Innovative tactics cigarette advertising and the cigarette industry itself was still in its infancy at the time in many ways World War I was just the beginning the second world war was when the cigarette really turned on its afterburners the impact of World War II on the popularity of cigarettes seems obvious one only needs to look at this graph it shows an increase in the US from roughly 1,800 cigarettes in per capita consumption in the year 1939 to nearly double that in 1945 we should however be careful not to conflate correlation with the causation the cigarette industry as historian Richard tenant outlines experienced consistent growth throughout the decades between World War I and 2 and was only hampered by external events such as the Great Depression that is to say the cigarette looked to be on an upward Trend even before World War II that Trend would have likely continued even in the absence of the conflict as industrialization ramped up and the increasing convenience and fashionableness of the cigarette grew as well the second world war although not essential to the success of the cigarette transformed its tempered rise into a meteoric one during World War I a mere total of 7. 5 billion cigarettes were shipped abroad for military use that number had skyrocketed to 92 billion per year in World War II the number of cigarettes being consumed by the average American Soldier was so high that one December 1944 defense report wrote that quote 30% of the total available supply of cigarettes is going to our Armed Forces overseas this coupled with a sharp increase in civilian demand for cigarettes led to a cigarette famine ultimately resulting in hoarding and panic buying this prompted the American cigarette industry to go into overdrive to keep up pumping out a quantity of cigarettes once thought unfathomable yearly output climbed from 172. 5 bli ion in 1939 to 267.

8 billion in 1945 an increase of 55% over 6 years even more than in the first world war cigarette marketing became associated with wartime patriotism and sacrifice adverts like this one encourage the reader to buy cigarettes and war bonds in support of the war effort as if trying to conflate the two as similar patriotic acts ad campaigns also started targeting women who had been drafted in droves into the US's War support industry this advertisement in a November 1944 edition of Vogue depicted Four Women each in different War related vocations praising Camel cigarettes as their smoke of choice with so many women in the war as with so many men their cigarette is camel cigarette manufacturers also began encouraging women to buy gifts for their husbands or boyfriends in the military as if the number of free cigarettes included in the rations of every Soldier wasn't enough two of the largest Brands camel and Chesterfields both published advertisements promoting the practice each trying to convince female buyers that their product was the most savored smoke in the service and that they should send them off as gifts over overseas sometimes by the carton Another War rated marketing Ploy saw the cigarette company Lucky Strike claimed to have swapped out their old branding colors green and red for a new red and white look because green contained copper a metal increasingly needed for war manufacturing they painted this shift as a patriotic move of self-sacrifice initiating a marketing campaign with the tagline Lucky Strike green has gone to war in actuality the green they used contained chromium not copper and Lucky Strike had known their existing color scheme to be unpopular for some time in the 1940s sleek and minimalistic branding was gaining popularity and Lucky Strike likely planned to change its packageing colors regardless of World War II the US joining the war was probably just a fortuitous opportunity to link their product to the Armed Forces and patriotism to further drive home the association between Lucky Strikes and the military they included Lucky Strike means fine tobacco rendered in a style similar to Morse code next to the packaging in its adverts this sort of aggressive marketing wasn't present everywhere in Germany cigarette advertisements were heavily restricted the Nazi party trumpeted anti-smoking rhetoric and banned public smoking in a number of places on the basis of public hygiene and social Purity despite this cigarettes were declared a war important product under their government much like in the US during World War I moral and health reservations about the cigarette were relegated in favor of their benefits as wartime morale boosters in 1941 Yosef gas head of Germany's propaganda Ministry blocked a atts at instituting a campaign against smoking during the war citing the fact that millions of soldiers were currently provided cigarettes by the state for use on the front despite this the Nazi party's position was generally that of opposition to smoking even if in practice they were somewhat flexible and this would have a pernicious Legacy [Music] as a result of the Nazi aversion to the cigarette and their public criticism of the practice post-war anti-smoking efforts became conflated with the authoritarianism of Nazi Germany prot tobacco cigarette activists and marketers were quick to label Public Health campaigns against the cigarette as fascistic Throwbacks to the Nazi ERA this is theorized to have led to an increase in German cigarette consumption in the postwar period as Health efforts against tobacco were stigmatized elsewhere in Europe the cigarette became more commonplace too under the Marshall Plan a relief program designed to boost capitalist democracies and impede Soviet communism 4.