Vintage Cigarette Ads: When Doctors "Recommended" Smoking Tobacco

Nowadays, major brands seek (almost desperately, I might add) the endorsement of artists and athletes to promote their products and expand their market presence. But in the past, they leaned toward professionals from other areas, with a particular preference for doctors. One company that heavily exploited the classic doctor image was R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company through its world-famous Camel brand, with full-page ads declaring their cigarettes to be the favorites of the "men in white".

As if that were not enough, their ads also launched the challenge of trying Camel tobacco for 30 days in the T-zone («T for Throat, T for Taste»), always represented with images of women. They became a priority target for the industry at that time, which tried to convince housewives to replace the occasional chocolates or candies with a cigarette at the end of the day.

The "More Doctors" campaign ran from 1946 to 1952. Camel received some warnings (the "polls" were conjured by R. J. Reynolds' advertising agency, the William Esty Company), and scientific evidence against heavy cigarette consumption continued to accumulate; however, the company essentially got away with it... and it wasn't the only one.

The article «The Doctors’ Choice Is America’s Choice» published by Martha N. Gardner and Allan M. Brandt extends the advertising range from 1930 to 1954, and includes examples from other brands like Lucky Strike, L&M, and Philip Morris. Indeed, R. J. Reynolds wasn't the first to play this game, but it dominated it completely...