Throughout the decades, tobacco companies have capitalized on fashion, glamour and beauty to market their products to women. Most notably, in 1934, Lucky Strike staged a “Green Ball” at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria, with every intention of making green, the then-color of a Lucky Strike pack, more fashionable for women so they would buy Luckies; fashion designers, reporters, socialites and many other influential people in the fashion world were in attendance at the Green Ball, while everyone thought some mysterious benefactor hosted the event. The 1920s saw the fashionable yet daring woman emerge in cigarette ads, while the 1930s saw a glamorous beauty, dripping in luxury. The Great Depression was the impetus for this latter type of woman, dressed in a ball gown, fur and gloves and jewels. The everyday woman could live vicariously, or might feel that she could adopt some of that luxury for herself by smoking the brand of cigarette advertised. Often, tobacco companies turned to chic celebrities to hawk their products, relying on their trendsetting ways to make the sell. Fashion trends change, but tobacco companies’ addiction to manipulating women through these trends has not changed. The models in Virginia Slims advertisements of the 1980s wore fashions which scream ‘80s, and the women in the ads of today can be seen in anything from trendy resort wear in a tropical setting to skin-revealing club wear. Whatever the case, tobacco companies know that if a woman sees a model in an ad who looks attractive, she will want to emulate her.
Jean Harlow
It's Toasted – img13501
The American Tobacco Company began using the slogan “It’s Toasted” for Lucky Strike cigarettes in 1917. “It’s toasted” referred to the process of heat curing tobacco leaf as opposed to simply sun drying. Purported to “remove harmful corrosive acids (pungent irritants)” and to “sterilize” tobacco, this process of curing tobacco did not in fact differ widely from methods of other manufacturers.
The slogan, still included in small text on Lucky Strike cartons today, has been included in a variety of Lucky Strike campaigns over the decades, ranging from “Cream of the Crop” (1928-1934) to “Fat Shadow” (1929-1930) to throat referrals (1927-1937). The meaning of the message was elastic — it was at some times used to indicate better taste, while at others to indicate less throat irritation.
First used in 1917 on an ad entitled, “Do you like good toast?” the slogan was meant to intone delicious flavor: “Toasting Burley holds the flavor, and helps it… Remember– it’s toasted! Like hot buttered toast.” Perhaps this comparison to toasting and coked food allowed Lucky Strike to position itself as a sterilized cigarette, free of disease such as tuberculosis.
The following year, Lucky Strike continued with the comparison to delicious cuisine, capitalizing on the American public’s preoccupation with the WWI shortage on food; indeed, in 1918, Lucky introduced its “food conservation series” of ads, which provided consumers with advice such as “More Vegetables Less Meat,” “Eat More Corn,” and “Cheese OK’d by Food Administration.” These guidelines followed FDA recommendations on the wartime food shortage in order to legitimize the purchase of Lucky Strike cigarettes.
While the earliest “It’s toasted” ads had boasted great taste, by 1927, Lucky had changed the meaning of the slogan to throat protection: “It’s toasted. Your throat protection – against irritation – against cough.” But by 1955 they were back in the flavor realm, with “It’s toasted to taste better!” In 1970, Lucky Strike was again considering ad copy which would compare its toasted cigarettes to delicious toast. An internal industry document reveals a mock-up ad featuring two boxes of Lucky Strike popping out of a toaster under the header “Bon Appetit: It’s Toasted to Taste Better” (2).
Clearly, the slogan has an elasticity of message which has allowed Lucky Strike to make health claims whenever convenient or beneficial. The slogan is included on the side of the current packing of the Lucky Strike carton, which reads, “manufacture includes the Lucky Strike process, It's Toasted.”
1. Heimann, Robert K. “Bon Appetit.” American Tobacco. 11 Nov 1970. http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/dmv60a00
