The limits of persuasion: Advertising, gender and the culture of Australian smoking*

This article was first delivered as a seminar paper at the University of Newcastle's Department of History in August 1996 and subsequently at the School of History seminar. University of New South Wales. I acknowledge the help and criticism given in both places, and also by the readers and editors of Australian Historical Studies. A much expanded book‐length version of these themes is now contained in my Deadly Enemies: Tobacco and its Opponents in Australia (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 1999).

Abstract

This article examines the shift from pipe to cigarette smoking in Australia from World War I to the 1950s; challenges the assumption that women were the major source of the rising popularity of cigarette smoking; questions, through a content analysis of themes in cigarette advertisements in major newspapers, the impact on smoking patterns of mass advertising before the 1950s; and shows the rising importance of roll‐your‐own cigarette consumption as a sign of masculine and working‐class identity and as an adaptation to modern urban life.

Notes

This article was first delivered as a seminar paper at the University of Newcastle's Department of History in August 1996 and subsequently at the School of History seminar. University of New South Wales. I acknowledge the help and criticism given in both places, and also by the readers and editors of Australian Historical Studies. A much expanded book‐length version of these themes is now contained in my Deadly Enemies: Tobacco and its Opponents in Australia (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 1999).