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Today, we know that smoking kills. But it wasn't so long ago that images of doctors, nurses and celebrities told us to light up. It was good for you, they said. These historical ads tell the story.

Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising

Tobacco advertisers often used the depiction of an ear, nose and throat doctor to promote cigarettes. "People in those days didn't know about lung cancer, but they knew that it was rough on your throat," said Dr. Robert Jackler, founder of the research group SRITA, or Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising, which documents the history of tobacco advertising. "They knew smoking irritates and makes you cough and gag. So having a throat doctor tell you it's OK to smoke was key to success in tobacco advertising and sales."

Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising

By today's standards, the ads were shocking. In one ad, a "doctor" describes how a little girl could live to 100 -- years longer than her mother -- while promoting the virtues of smoking.

"The none-too-subtle message was that if the doctor, with all of his expertise, chose to smoke a particular brand, then it must be safe," SRITA said. Tobacco ads using images of health professionals like doctors, nurses and dentists ran from about 1935 through the early '60s.

Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising

Look closely at these ads. You won't see a doctor's name. That's because all of the doctors were really actors. Advertising by real doctors was frowned on as unethical, SRITA says. "Unlike with celebrity and athlete endorsers, the doctors depicted were never specific individuals, because physicians who engaged in advertising would risk losing their license."

Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising

This ad was a rare exception. Dr. G. Edward Roehrig was indeed a real doctor, practicing initially in Chicago and later in Los Angeles. "Ironically, he died of lung cancer," Jackler said.

Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising

In the early 1900s, women began picking up smoking habits -- and consequently, nurses were used to promote the benefits of particular cigarettes. That would soon become common in the world of tobacco advertising. This ad for Camel cigarettes was released in 1932.

Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising

In this campaign, Viceroys attempted to assure the public that its brand wouldn't stain teeth, giving the claim credibility by using an actor posing as a dentist.

Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising

The use of celebrities, such as this ad with TV legend Ed Sullivan, was another common tactic to earn the public's trust. Here, Sullivan says he has smoked the Chesterfield brand for 22 years.
Ad copy then offers some medical support: "A medical specialist is making regular bi-monthly examinations of a group of people from various walks of life. ... No adverse effects on the nose, throat, and sinuses of the group smoking Chesterfields."

Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising

The use of sports celebrities was also common in the early days of tobacco advertising. Here, leading names in rodeo, polo, table tennis and fishing are placed above yet another endorsement by doctors.

"Little protest was heard from the medical community or organized medicine," SRITA said, "perhaps because the images showed the profession in a highly favorable light."

The American Medical Association did not respond to a request for comment.

Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising

Some cigarette companies were bold enough to state health benefits on their ads. Here, Marshall's Cubeb cigarettes claim to be a "sure remedy" for asthma, nasal congestion and the common cold.

Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising

Another series of ads claimed that smoking improved digestion. In this mid-1930s campaign, Camel said, "Using sensitive scientific apparatus, it is possible to measure accurately the increase in digestive fluids ... that follows the enjoyment of Camel's costlier tobaccos. The same studies demonstrate that an abundant flow of digestive fluids is important also to the enjoyment of food."

Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising

This ad claims that the longer length of the cigarette reduces health dangers since it would take more time for the smoke to reach the smoker's lungs, allowing more filtering of toxins.

"In 1950, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigators had decided that king-size cigarettes, like Embassy, contained 'more tobacco and therefore more harmful substances' than are found in an ordinary cigarette," SRITA said.

Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising

Tobacco companies also capitalized on smoking's tendency to reduce appetite. Many ads promoted the use of cigarettes as a tool for weight loss. Women were a prime target.

Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising

Advertisements aimed at men often insinuated that weight loss from smoking would lead to greater athletic ability, while assuring the public that over 20,000 physicians found Lucky Strike cigarettes to be easier on the throat because they were "toasted."

"All American grown tobacco was toasted, flue cured, and that's what made American cigarettes milder than European cigarettes," says SRITA's Jackler. "Toasting leaves made a very soft smoke you could draw into your lungs."

Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising

Using images of health professionals to win the trust of the public and downplay the growing concern over smoking continued until the early '60s. In 1965, the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act was passed; it was updated in 1969 to read as it does in this ad: "Warning: The Surgeon General Has Determined that Cigarette Smoking Is Dangerous to Your Health."

CNN reached out to major tobacco companies for comment about their ad campaigns during this era. Only R.J. Reynolds, maker of Newport, Camel and Pall Mall, replied. "I am not in a position to provide any insights or comments on advertisements that are more than 70 years old," said David Howard, Reynolds American Services senior director of communications.

Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising

The history of tobacco health claims

Story highlights

Today, adenocarcinomas make up about 80% to 85% of all lung cancers, says one expert

Since the introduction of ventilation holes in cigarette filters, this type of lung cancer has proportionally increased

CNN —

Light cigarettes falsely ease smokers’ fear of lung cancer, say researchers from the Ohio State University.

Evidence suggests that ventilation holes in the filters of these cigarettes contribute to increased lung adenocarcinoma rates and risks, according to a study published Monday in Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Adenocarcinoma is a type of lung cancer that arises in the periphery or farther reaches of the lung and is difficult to treat, the researchers say.

Based on the study results, the authors recommend that the US Food and Drug Administration investigate whether the use of filter ventilation in cigarettes should be prohibited.

Cigarette makers began to incorporate ventilation holes in filters in the mid-1960s to dilute the smoke; the holes meant smokers drew in air along with the burning tobacco. At the time, this was believed to make cigarettes safer.

“The evidence shows that more modern cigarettes are more risky for lung cancer,” said Dr. Peter G. Shields, a co-author of the study, deputy director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at James Cancer Hospital and a professor at the Ohio State University. “It is pretty clear that the only plausible explanation is changes in cigarette designs over the last 40-plus years.”

A shift in lung cancer

“There are three or four types of lung cancers based on what they look like under the microscope,” said Dr. Norman H. Edelman, senior scientific adviser at the American Lung Association.

He explained that unlike adenocarcinoma, squamous-cell carcinoma tends to arise in the central part of the lung. There are also small-cell lung cancers and undifferentiated lung cancers.

“Two, three generations ago or so,” Edelman said, squamous-cell made up about a third of all lung cancers and adenocarcinoma another third, and the remaining two types combined to make up the final third.

Around that time, cigarette companies began to make and promote filters on their cigarettes.

The ratios of lung cancers have since shifted. Today, adenocarcinomas make up about 80% to 85% of all lung cancers, said Edelman, who was not involved in the new study.

“We don’t quite know cause and effect between the use of filters and the change of the cell type,” he said, but the fact that there’s a relationship between the two is well-known by the general scientific community.