Buy the product,live the dream........

 

 

 

Modern propaganda is a consistent, enduring effort to create or shape events to influence the relations of the public to an enterprise, idea or group.

[Source: Bernays, Propaganda, 1928, ]

 

After WWI, Edward Bernays was hired by the American Tobacco Company to encourage women to start smoking. While men smoked cigarettes, it was not publicly acceptable for women to smoke. Bernays staged a dramatic public display of women smoking during the Easter Day Parade in New York City. He then told the press to expect that women suffragists would light up “torches of freedom” during the parade to show they were equal to men. Like the“You’ve come a long way, baby” ads, this campaign commodified women’s progress and desire to be considered equal to men .

 

 

A womans handbag is equal to a first aid survival kit....everything she needs to cope with, to do battle with ,support those around her. Her handbag is used to  navigate the complexities and challenges that are her everyday life.

Surveys of womans handbags in recent times show that they are  highly likely to contain a packet of cigarettes or packet of tobacco...Just another life survival prop.

Medical studies have shown that the number of women smoking, especially lower income women, is increasing. Does this tell us something?