Historic Anti-Smoking Campaigns: A Brief Sketch

The second half of the twentieth century was marked by increasing efforts to curb tobacco consumption and exposure, and in the new millennium the 2005 WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the first ever public health treaty, was developed to tackle the factors leading to ill health from tobacco. On 24th April 2018, the 104th Global Health Histories seminar will take as its theme the histories and current global challenges of tobacco control, with presentations by our expert panellists Dr. Lakshmi C. Somatunga and & Professor Kamran Siddiqi. The event will be held at the University of York, and attendance is free and open to all. Further information and registration details can be found at www.york.ac.uk/history/global-health-histories/events/ghh-104-tobacco-control/

Anti-smoking campaigns targeted at mass audiences have also constituted a significant part of the efforts to curb tobacco consumption since the mid-twentieth century. They were released to counter the promotional messages of tobacco companies, whose advertisements were well-funded and created an attractive and pervasive lifestyle around smoking. But the challenge extended beyond this: smoking has long been embedded in popular culture, glamourised and normalised, for instance, by icons of the cinema screen. Anti-smoking campaigns therefore relied on various techniques and designs to persuade people to stub out their cigarettes. Posters were a key component, but press advertisements, television commercials, comic books and book-marks were all deployed. It is these highly visual mediums which we turn our attentions to in this blog post, drawing upon the holdings of the Wellcome Collection.

'A young woman smoking; silver coins represent expense' by Reginald Mount. Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY

Our first poster (by Reginald Mount, c. 1965) was part of a pairing, both of which are held in the Wellcome Collection. Depicting a young female smoker, it attempts to influence viewers by means of a rational argument based on the monetary cost of smoking, and what that money could be spent on instead. The argument outlined in the poster text takes the form of an imagined, one-sided conversation, and goes into a different register by suggesting that smoking can not only save you money and make you healthier, but lead to a better, happier life as a result (the character is presented as being unlucky in love because of her habit). The visual elements are similarly simple but effective: cigarette smoke is shown in the form of coins, emphasising money literally going up in smoke. The companion poster (again by Reginald Mount, 1965) shows a male smoker and makes a similar argument. The character talks about his friend’s new acquisitions (which include a gold watch and transistor radio) as well as his new found health upon giving up smoking. As well as the rational argument about saving money, the subtle humour of both posters encourages viewers/readers to compare their own attitudes and experiences with those of the poster characters, and reflect on the relative happiness of the smoker and non-smoker.

'Flyer (bookmark) warning of the dangers of smoking' . Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY

Our next image is striking in its simplicity yet forcefulness. The cancer bookmark, issued by Britain's Central Council for Health Education in the 1950s, displays a comparatively spare design where the modest inclusions are used to create a powerful message. The rising cigarette smoke which spells out ‘Cancer’ makes the point that smoking and disease are fundamentally intertwined. The design is all the more haunting for the subtle, and some might say, friendly way in which this is conveyed. On first sight the curved, flowing letters do not look threatening, but that is the ultimate message: cigarettes, the epitome of everydayness, cause profound health problems.

'Have another! Sure death' . Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY

The next poster (designer and date unknown, though probably post 1950s) deploys a different take on this. It displays a design which came to be a common sight on many anti-smoking campaigns, as well as in connection with several other health problems. It conveys the unequivocal message that smoking cigarettes = death. This is achieved through instantly recognisable and understood symbols such as the skull, the skeletal hand grasping an open packet of cigarettes, and a grave. Yet if further convincing was necessary, the wording at the bottom of the design reiterates the point: ‘sure death’. Many anti-smoking posters display the common post-war trend of emphasising visual messages rather than extensive, descriptive text on poster campaigns.

'German anti-smoking campaign poster' . Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY

Our final design, from Germany, calls upon smokers to spare their organs by illustrating the path that cigarette smoke takes straight to the heart, lungs and stomach. It represents an attempt to sensitise smokers to the deeper damage done by smoking, by visualising the invisible journey of the cigarette smoke. However, we should bear in mind that whilst poster designers may have intended a specific interpretation, rarely was it the case that everyone viewed and understood the designs in exactly the same way. Misinterpretation was a common problem in relation to other health campaigns, as Alex Mould shows in her exploration of alcohol, health education and the public in 1970s Britain.[1] In relation to this German poster, the body in question looks relatively strong and healthy, and the heart in particular looks to be bursting with life. To those unacquainted with the effects of cigarette smoke, or those who gave the poster but a passing glance, the point about the negative consequences of smoking may have been lost. Reception at the time is, of course, impossible to substantiate concretely for this particular poster, but the broader point stands that no matter the resources directed at public health campaigns, their ultimate effect was very much dependent on a range of factors.

These posters represent but a snapshot of the enormous efforts which were deployed to encourage people to stop smoking. Further designs can be viewed in the excellent WHO publication 'Public Health Campaigns: Getting the Message Across' which is available at www.who.int/about/history/publications/9789240560277/en/, and more recent efforts at http://www.who.int/campaigns/no-tobacco-day/2017/poster/en/.

Alexander Medcalf is a Research and Teaching Fellow at the University of York Department of History, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Global Health Histories. He teaches the MA option course A Picture of Health: The Mass Media and Public Health in the Twentieth Century.

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[1] Alex Mold, ‘Everybody Likes a Drink. Nobody Likes a Drunk’. Alcohol, Health Education and the Public in 1970s Britain’, Social History of Medicine, Volume 30, Issue 3, 1 August 2017, Pages 612–636