Women and Smoking Studied
Tobacco companies did elaborate research on women to figure out how to hook them on smoking -- even toying with the idea of chocolate-flavored cigarettes that would curb appetite, according to a new analysis.
Researchers at Harvard University’s School of Public Health said they examined more than 7 million documents -- some dating back to 1969, others as recent as 2000 -- for new details about the industry’s efforts to lure more female smokers.
Carrie Carpenter, the study’s lead author, said companies’ research went far beyond a marketing or advertising campaign.
“They did so much research in such a sophisticated way,” she said. “Women should know how far the tobacco industry went to exploit them.”
The report, published in the June issue of the journal Addiction, said tobacco companies looked for ways to modify their cigarettes to give women the illusion they could puff their way into a better life.
One of the documents, a 1987 internal report from Philip Morris, extolled the virtues of making a longer, slimmer cigarette that offered the false promise of a “healthier” product.
“Most smokers have little notion of their brand’s tar and nicotine levels,” the report states. “Perception is more important than reality, and in this case the perception is of reduced tobacco consumption.”
A Philip Morris spokesman declined to comment on the report, saying the company hasn’t had a chance to fully review it.
The Harvard researchers spent more than a year sifting through an online database of internal files made public after the 1998 settlement between tobacco companies and 46 states.
Carpenter said they found at least 320 documents on women’s smoking patterns, including a 1982 report from British-American Tobacco Co. that said women buy cigarettes to help them “cope with neuroticism.”
Other internal studies showed that companies explored adding appetite suppressants to cigarettes. In 1980, for instance, R.J. Reynolds Co. proposed creating a cigarette with a “unique flavor that decreases a smoker’s appetite, including brandy, chocolate, chocolate mint, cinnamon, spearmint and honey.”
However, researchers didn’t find any evidence they followed through with that idea. Executives at R.J. Reynolds didn’t respond to requests for comment.
