Return to the Golden Age of Cigarette Advertising

The New York Public Library has a new exhibit of print advertising for cigarettes from the 1920s to the 1950s. Advertising Age has a short video story about this here. Even in the little clip, they discuss how clever the advertising companies were in selling cigarettes. I know in my classes there is always an interesting ethical debate around certain products - cigarettes, fast food, etc. - when we discuss personal responsibility vs. the role that the mass media plays in influencing people.

The more time I spend working with advertising students, the more I value having landed in an advertising department. In graduate school I never would have guessed this is where I would end up working, but it's been a great opportunity. This spring I'm going to be working with students to develop a couple new health campaigns, hopefully bringing some of the spice and creativity they learn in their classes to address public health problems. We'll see how it goes, but even in the planning stages they're looking pretty promising.