ta cigarette consumption dropped four years in a row -something that had not happened since the turn of the century. Naturally, there were other reasons for this decline, butresearchers tend to agree that the ads were a powerful factor.They also permeated the culture in ways that can't bequantified, making people less likely to associate cigaretteswith glamour. In Hollywood movies, where smoking had beenseemingly mandatory for decades, cigarettes disappeared like thehats from mens' heads. Only 29 percent of movie characterssmoked in the 1970s- less than half as many as before or since. Most of the ads were produced by the American CancerSociety and the American Lung Association, and they were so goodthat the tobacco industry began to panic. They were clever too, however cigarettes didn't reallydisappear from television. With all the money they saved on ads(close to $ 800 million a year in current dollars), the tobaccocompanies managed to make sure that major sports events wouldoccur against the backdrop of a massive cigarette ad. Theysponsored tennis tournaments and drag races; they poured adsinto newspapers and magazines; they papered highways and innercities with acres of billboards. They crafted new brands tospecific demographics - Eve, Misty, and Capri for women,following the launch of Virginia Slims; Uptown and Kool forAfrican Americans; American Spirit for Native Americans. Movie industry spokesmen claim that product placementhasn't happened since 1990, and last November's settlement nowforbids it. And it should be said that Hollywood directors arefar more likely to be slaves to fashion than to the tobaccoindustry. But whatever the reason, by the mid-1990s, Hollywoodmovies were once again filled with smoke. According to theAmerican Lung Association, in 133 top movies produced in 1994and 1995, 82 percent of the lead or supporting characters smoke.In fairness to Hollywood, the anti-smoking movement itselfmay deserve some of the bla...
