The Marketing of Women's Smoking

These are the people. These are the ones you think make the decisions,

and these, the ones who really make them.

You think it's a conspiracy theory? Good. Listen to this story.

In nineteen twenty-nine, American Tobacco had a huge problem.

Women didn't smoke. Smoking was for men, or for women with bad

reputations. Half the population not smoking meant half

the market was off

limits. So they brought in Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud's

nephew, the father of modern propaganda.

Bernays saw it in a second: sell her freedom.

He hired a group of wealthy young women, told them to hide cigarettes under their

clothes and wait for his signal. Easter Parade, nineteen twenty-nine.

Right on cue, they all lit up. He called them Torches of Freedom.

The press was already tipped off. The cameras were already waiting.

The whole thing was staged. The next morning, it

was on the front page of every

paper. Sales exploded. Smoking became equality.

Women thought they were making a choice. The choice had already been made for them.

Did you fall asleep? Open your eyes and see the world you're living in.

Read this book before they censor it.