Din “Jim's burnt offerings”:

Gold tipped and scented, Rosita Cigarettes were made for the ladies. Need pastel colored cigarettes for that perfect cocktail party? Then, gold tipped and multicolored Du Barry would have been the logical choice. The Rosedor Cigarette Company of Brooklyn, NY began making Du Barry in 1926 and Rosita in 1928. Superb pack graphics and vivid colors make these eye-grabbing designs a standout in any pack collection. Rosedor made many specialty brands from 1915 until the mid to late 1930's, but are best remembered for their scented Salome, extra long Longfellow, and economical Bright Star cigarettes.

Captain Marvelous, pictured below, appealed to a male's sense of humor when she appeared in a 1971 issue of Playboy, a magazine for mere men. The inside story behind this unique ad is as cute as Ms. Veronica Hamel, the model for the 'superwoman' drawing. The idea for a series of Virginia Slims 'women are superior' ads originated with Mike Stample, a very junior copywriter working for Leo Burnett's advertising agency. In 1970, Mr. Stample found a definitive book in the Chicago Public Library on just why females are better than males. Anthropologist Ashley Montagu, a male, wrote "On the Natural Superiority of Women," and it was this book that inspired Mike.

Since 1952 when Montagu first made his claims in an article for the "Saturday Review", the book has angered many feminists and been applauded by many others. A woman, Montagu claims, should not attempt to blindly imitate the type-A, money-crazed, commercial-driven lifestyle of the typical executive male. The most fulfilling life for the mother can be realized only if she spends the first years caring for the new baby, and only later joins (or rejoins) the workforce. Montagu's great goal is not to promote a society dominated by women, but a to bring about a world of equality where the beautiful characteristics of women rule: a world of cooperation, sensitivity, and human kindness.

That evening, and just for a lark, he created a series of light-hearted Woman's Liberation ads using Montagu's physical, emotional and intellectual reasons that explain just why women are better than men. Mike thought to entertain colleagues at the next Creative Review Committee meeting. These tongue in cheek ads were admired by a junior art director, who made sketches of several that mimicked ads produced for a real campaign. What began as a kind of joke, were now reviewed by Hal Weinstein, head of the creative group responsible for the Virginia Slims campaign. Mike suggested to his boss that these ads would "further rile up the feminists." Weinstein dismissed his concerns as "the foolishness of youth," and shortly thereafter the 21 year old copywriter quit to follow the youth movement and all the wonderful experiences that entailed. All of this resulted in a meeting at Leo Burnett that became legendary. Not wanting to offend, ad agency management met with leaders of local women's groups. A man representing Leo Burnett welcomed them with: "We have something that you girls are really going to love!" The Chicago Tribune Newspaper printed an article chronicling the resulting riot. Just the one ad picturing Captain Marvelous was published, and only in Playboy Magazine, but this classic "You've come a long way, baby" is a terrific example of an ad born of the feminist movement.

We make Virginia Slims especially for women because they are biologically superior to men . . . . Women have two "X" chromosomes in their sex cells while men have only one "X" chromosome and a "Y" chromosome, which some experts consider to be the inferior chromosome . . . . In view of these and other facts, the makers of Virginia Slims feel it highly inappropriate that women continue to use the fat stubby cigarettes designed for mere men. Virginia Slims. Slimmer than the fat cigarettes men smoke . . . . You've come a long way, baby. (1)

Duplication of the X chromosome has obvious genetic advantages, but does this translate into resistance to the respiratory health effects of tobacco use, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer? This duplication results in a variety of hormonal and enzymatic outcomes that, ultimately, make women and men different but also, potentially, confers sex-related differences in susceptibility to disease.

In recent years, COPD has become an "equal opportunity" disease with more women developing COPD and suffering COPD-related morbidity and mortality in high-income countries around the world (2–5). The increasing prevalence of COPD among women in high-income countries is due, in large part, to the historic increase in smoking among women in these populations. In low- and moderate-income countries, COPD prevalence remains lower in women compared with men and the risk factors for disease may also vary, with exposure to indoor air pollutants, poor diet, and poverty being more important than they are in high-income countries (6, 7).

In a similar way, lung cancer has also become a disease affecting an increasing number of women (8). Since the mid 1980s in the United States, more women have died annually of lung cancer than from breast cancer (9). By 1999, 4.6% of deaths among women and 5.1% of deaths among men were from COPD and 5.0% of deaths among women and 7.6% of deaths among men were from lung cancer (8). The link between COPD and lung cancer has been well established in several different cohorts, although the reasons for this association remain unclear (10–12). The question remains whether, all exposures being equal, women are more or less likely to develop COPD and lung cancer when compared with men.

The article by Ben-Zaken Cohen and colleagues in this issue of the Journal (pp. 113–120) (13) explores sex-related differences in the development of COPD and lung cancer and in the metabolism of tobacco smoke constituents. The authors acknowledge that this is an area of research with a great deal of uncertainty. Women have a lower risk of cardiovascular mortality during early adulthood (14), compared with men, so one explanation for increased susceptibility might be a cohort effect—that is, the pool of people at risk for developing cardiovascular and respiratory disease changes over time because a larger proportion of men die of cardiovascular disease at a young age. This lower risk of cardiovascular mortality in women is most likely related to hormonal and sex differences that, ironically, may be the exact same factors that the authors point to as increasing the risk of developing COPD and asthma.

Ben Zaken-Cohen and coworkers (13) show that certain cytochrome p450 (CYP) enzymes, CYP1A1, CYP1A2, and CYP3A4 (Table 1) have increased expression in women and suggest that these differences may lead to sex-related differences in susceptibility to tobacco smoke (and presumably other smoke) toxins. Table 1 in their article also shows, however, that we do not know whether the other enzymes in the cytochrome P450 family are up- or down-regulated in women. Does up-regulation (or down-regulation) of these enzymes lead to the development of lung cancer? This is unknown but certainly an area where a great deal more research is needed and welcome.

Does impaired lung function in women lead to a differentially higher risk of lung cancer than that seen in men? Figure 1 in Ben Zaken-Cohen and colleagues' article (13) demonstrates that when one compares women with men, the loss of lung function is more important as a risk factor for lung cancer in women. Interestingly, though, in the studies from which these data were derived (10, 15), men were significantly more likely to develop lung cancer than women. Thus, an alternative explanation for the pattern seen in Figure 1, is that, among men and women with the best lung function (quintile 5), women are actually less likely to develop lung cancer than men and that this benefit is extinguished when lung function is lost.

While COPD and lung cancer in women have come a long way in the past 35 years, we still have a long way to go to understand how men and women differ in their risk for exposures to tobacco smoke and other factors in the development of these diseases. Ben Zaken-Cohen and colleagues provide some provocative and investigable reasons for sex differences in the development of COPD and lung cancer and the relationship between these two important and lethal diseases (13). Whether women are more or less likely to develop these diseases remains an open question, but developing a better understanding of how sex and hormonal differences influence disease development and progression can hopefully lead to improved interventions and outcomes for our patients. (source)

Kamel Cigarettes brought back sexy pin-ups with a 1998 advertising campaign reminiscent of those cute 'calendar girls' of the 1940's and 50's. This age of political correctness hasn't ended the timeless appeal of this seductive style of art. It's a pleasure to share with you one major American company's attempt to fly in the face of popular public opinion.

The attractive women who modeled for Virginia Slims weren't always successful in introducing new line extensions. Virginia Slims Ovals were unsuccessfully test marketed in Rochester, Las Vegas, and Birmingham beginning June 1984. Another short lived idea was to package VS in a supposedly convenient ten pack. In October 1975 Philip Morris was the first manufacturer to extend the 120mm length to a major brand. Virginia Slims 120's were tested in Fresno, California, but withdrawn when sales failed to meet expectations. It wasn't until 1985 that super long Virginia Slims Lights 120's were found acceptable. One VS line extension brought out in the late 1980s was smiled upon by women, but scorned by a competing manufacturer. Philip Morris launched Superslims from Virginia Slims beginning October 1989. The Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation had been selling super thin Capri since January 1987, and frowned when another skinny smoke was introduced. That same year I received a letter from a lawyer with a NYC law firm that was representing Philip Morris. I was asked if there had been any cigarettes made before 1987 that had a very, very small diameter. Did you know that Benson & Hedges marketed Russian No. 3 cigarettes during the 1930's with a smaller diameter than Capri?

Back in the 1970's much of the money that manufacturers spent on cigarette advertising went for magazine, newspaper, and Sunday supplement ads. The 1971 radio and television ban had forced this shift. The outdoor billboard industry, rapid transit advertising, and the sponsorship of sporting events, also benefited from the broadcasting ban. Cigarette manufacturers seemed to put their best foot forward when they chose the attractive, intelligent looking, stylish women pictured below to advertise their product.

The 1985 "Light My Lucky" campaign was the third unsuccessful attempt by The American Tobacco Company to add a filter tipped line extension to their old standard, Lucky Strike. Sales of non-filtered Luckies had been on the decline since the 1950's. In terms of corporate strategy, perhaps the most interesting attempt was the 1982 "Lucky Strikes Again" campaign that was headed up by Thomas C. Hays, a 47 year old non-smoker. Hays had between 50 and 100 million dollars to promote a low tar filter tip version of Lucky Strike. He felt that the best way to do this was to emphasize the fun of the cigarette. A dart-throwing tournament and roving vans with women passing out free packs in bowling alleys, bars, and restaurants went nowhere. It should be noted that Thomas Hays wasn't a tobacco-man. He had been an executive with Jergens Lotion before joining ATCo. To be fair, there were plenty of cigarette test markets that were run by tobacco-men that also failed. Nevertheless, The American Tobacco Company went out of business in 1994.

There are a lot of web pages on the Internet that will tell you what a low down dromedary Joe Camel was. Politicians and some members of the Federal Trade Commission, among others, felt Smooth Joe was able to seduce young children into a life of ugly yellow teeth, bodies that reeked, and an early death. Nicholas Price, the British artist who created Joe in 1974 for an ad published in Lui, a French men's magazine, gave him expressive brown eyes with suggestive eyebrows, and a fun-loving grin. A camel isn't necessarily the most handsome of beasts, but Joe was hip, he looked suave in his tuxedo, and he always seemed to be doing the most exciting things. Joe thought he could help America and ran for political office in 1992 using the campaign slogan "not just another pretty face." This popular spokescamel for a major US corporation received a number of write-in votes for president, but Bill Clinton won. Joe was a party animal who occasionally played piano with The Hard Pack, a blues band. Although Joe wasn't an official Hard Pack member, he was instrumental in getting the group to record their "Empty Lighter Blues." Joe flew jets, raced fast cars, partied with Hollywood starlets, printed his own funny money that really wasn't a joke, enjoyed a hot tub, and motorcycled across America in search of a good time. Pictured below is a selection of ads that helped make Joe Cool infamous here in the US, recognized around the world, and appreciated by fans of pop art everywhere.

A sophisticated adult advertising campaign that used the slogan "What You're Looking For," replaced the infamous Smooth Joe, a cartoon camel that anti-tobacco hated. Mezzina/Brown, the advertising agency responsible for the stylish new ads, put an outline of the camel icon in smoke, condensation, and several other interesting places. With almost no text, not even the Camel brand name, the sometimes hidden image of the classic camel is soft-sell at its best.

Commando Mara has just taken a long Kamel drag before going forth to vanquish the nasty male robot who threatens her troop of blond amazon warriors. The targeted smokers were the intelligent men who read Details Magazine, and this spoof of an ad challenged perceived feminine traits suggesting women are weak and submissive. Stereotypes are important to anyone effected by them. For example, pink is the reigning color for gender. Tennis star Billy Jean King was quoted as saying that "I would never have worn pink" for her 1973 Battle of the Sexes tennis spectacle against male chauvinous pig Bobby Riggs.

During 1977, the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company spent more than 51 million dollars ($40 million during the first six months) to introduce their new low-tar Real Cigarette. At that time, this was the most that any tobacco manufacturer had ever spent to promote a new brand. To be considered successful, a cigarette being test marketed has to attract 1/4 of 1 percent of total cigarette sales. The ads pictured below seem as if they were able to convey that smoking is either a pleasant social experience or terribly sophisticated. However, without radio jingles and television commercials to help, most campaigns for new cigarettes either misfired, or at best, fizzled for a few years.

The following is a list of the new cigarette brands (excluding line extensions) that were test marketed by the six major US manufacturers after the January 1971 radio and television ad ban: Adam, American Brand, American Filters, American Lights, American Longs, Arctic, Aspen, Barclay, Basic, Bistro, Bright, Bristol, Brookwood, Bucks, Bull Durham, Cambridge, Capri, Cartier Vendome, Century, Chelsea, Coins, Concord, Dakota, Dawn, Decade, Dorado, Dunhill, Eagle, Eclipse, Eli Cutter, Epic, Eve, Fact, Harley-Davidson, Hallmark, Heritage, Horizon, Iceberg, Kamel, L. T. Brown, Long Johns, Lyme, Magna, Malibu, Maverick, Max, Merit, Mermaid, Misty, Miyako, More, Next, Northwind, Now, Omni, Philip Morris International, Phoenix, Players, PM Blues, Premier, Pyramid, Raffles, Real, Rebel, Richland, Rio, Ritz, Riviera, Safari, Saratoga, Satin, Savannah, Savvy, Special 10s, Spirit, Spring Lemon Lights, St. James Court, St. Moritz, Sterling, Stride, Style, Suedes, Super M, Tall, Tramps, Triumph, True, Twist, Upland, Uptown, Vanguard, Vantage, Vello, Winchester, and Zack.

The original full flavor 120mm More that was introduced during October 1974 was a slim, dark brown, and very stylish cigarette that appealed to fashion conscious smokers. Wanting to fill all available niches, manufacturer R. J. Reynolds launched a More line extension in 1981. The advertising slogan "It's more you" was used for new More Lights 100s, a shorter, low-tar cigarette that was wrapped in beige paper. The design of the original flip-top box lacked pizzazz. The somewhat plain beige box had either two red or two green diagonal stripes that signified a non-menthol or a menthol cigarette. In 1984 this first attempt was replaced with a far richer decorator flip-top box featuring the glitter of gold. This second More Lights package, seen in the ad below, wasn't fancy enough to be confused for an expensive art deco cigarette case, but it still managed to mimic those elegant, custom, and often personalized metallic cases that were popular with smokers during the 1930's and 40's.

Din wikipedia:

From its inception until 1978, Virginia Slims saw a steady increase in market share to 1.75% (3.9% of all female smokers). With the introduction of Lights in 1978, the market share increased to 2.5%. Other packings, including 120s, Ultra Lights, and Superslims helped push the market share to a peak of 3.1% (nearly 7% of female smokers) in 1989. With increased competition from other brands, notably Capri and Misty, the brand lost ground but stabilized at around 2.4% though 2003. Since then, it has lost about .1% per year, and was 2.0% in 2007. This slow but steady decline is expected to continue, since the brand is no longer heavily promoted. Despite this, brand loyalty is well above average, and is still one of the highest in the industry.

Nicotine's mood-altering effects are different by report: in particular it is both a stimulant and a relaxant. First causing a release of glucose from the liver and epinephrine (adrenaline) from the adrenal medulla, it causes stimulation. Users report feelings of relaxation, sharpness, calmness, and alertness. By reducing the appetite and raising the metabolism, some smokers may lose weight as a consequence.

When a cigarette is smoked, nicotine-rich blood passes from the lungs to the brain within seven seconds and immediately stimulates the release of many chemical messengers including acetylcholine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, vasopressin, arginine, dopamine, autocrine agents, and beta-endorphin. This release of neurotransmitters and hormones is responsible for most of nicotine's effects. Nicotine appears to enhance concentration and memory due to the increase of acetylcholine. It also appears to enhance alertness due to the increases of acetylcholine and norepinephrine. Arousal is increased by the increase of norepinephrine. Pain is reduced by the increases of acetylcholine and beta-endorphin. Anxiety is reduced by the increase of beta-endorphin. Nicotine also extends the duration of positive effects of dopamine and increases sensitivity in brain reward systems. Most cigarettes (in the smoke inhaled) contain 0.1 to 2.8 milligrams of nicotine.

Modern research shows that nicotine acts on the brain to produce a number of effects. Specifically, its addictive nature has been found to show that nicotine activates reward pathways—the circuitry within the brain that regulates feelings of pleasure and euphoria.

Dopamine is one of the key neurotransmitters actively involved in the brain. Research shows that by increasing the levels of dopamine within the reward circuits in the brain, nicotine acts as a chemical with intense addictive qualities. In many studies it has been shown to be more addictive than cocaine and heroin, though chronic treatment has an opposite effect on reward thresholds. Like other physically addictive drugs, nicotine causes down-regulation of the production of dopamine and other stimulatory neurotransmitters as the brain attempts to compensate for artificial stimulation. In addition, the sensitivity of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors decreases. To compensate for this compensatory mechanism, the brain in turn upregulates the number of receptors, convoluting its regulatory effects with compensatory mechanisms meant to counteract other compensatory mechanisms. The net effect is an increase in reward pathway sensitivity, opposite of other drugs of abuse such as cocaine and heroin, which reduce reward pathway sensitivity. This neuronal brain alteration persists for months after administration ceases. Due to an increase in reward pathway sensitivity, nicotine withdrawal is relatively mild compared to alcohol or heroin withdrawal.[citation needed] Nicotine also has the potential to cause dependence in many animals other than humans. Mice have been administered nicotine and exhibit withdrawal reactions when its administration is stopped.

A study found that nicotine exposure in adolescent mice retards the growth of the dopamine system, thus increasing the risk of substance abuse during adolescence.

The LD50 of nicotine is 50 mg/kg for rats and 3 mg/kg for mice. 40–60 mg (0.5-1.0 mg/kg) can be a lethal dosage for adult humans. Nicotine therefore has a high toxicity in comparison to many other alkaloids such as cocaine, which has an LD50 of 95.1 mg/kg when administered to mice. It is impossible however to overdose on nicotine through smoking alone (though a person can overdose on nicotine through a combination of nicotine patches, nicotine gum, and/or tobacco smoking at the same time.) Spilling an extremely high concentration of nicotine onto the skin can result in intoxication or even death since nicotine readily passes into the bloodstream from dermal contact

For instance, recent studies suggest that smokers require less frequent repeated revascularization after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Risk of ulcerative colitis has been frequently shown to be reduced by smokers on a dose-dependent basis; the effect is eliminated if the individual stops smoking. Smoking also appears to interfere with development of Kaposi's sarcoma, breast cancer among women carrying the very high risk BRCA gene, preeclampsia, and atopic disorders such as allergic asthma. A plausible mechanism of action in these cases may be nicotine acting as an anti-inflammatory agent, and interfering with the inflammation-related disease process, as nicotine has vasoconstrictive effects.

With regard to neurological diseases, evidence suggests that the risk of developing Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease might be 50% lower in smokers, compared to non-smokers. Tobacco smoke has been shown to contain compounds capable of inhibiting MAO. Monoamine oxidase is responsible for the degredation of dopamine in the human brain. When dopamine is broken down by MAO-B, neurotoxic by-products are formed, possibly contributing to Parkinson's and Alzheimers disease. Many such papers regarding Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's Disease have been published. More recent studies find that there's no beneficial link between smoking and Alzheimer's, and in some cases suggest that it actually results in an earlier onset of the disease.

Recent studies have indicated that nicotine can be used to help adults suffering from Autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy. The same areas that cause seizures in that form of epilepsy are also responsible for processing nicotine in the brain.

It has been noted that the majority of people diagnosed with schizophrenia smoke tobacco. Estimates for the number of schizophrenics that smoke range from 75% to 90%. It was recently argued that the increased level of smoking in schizophrenia may be due to a desire to self-medicate with nicotine. More recent research has found that mildly-dependent users got some benefit from nicotine, but not those who were highly-dependent. All of these studies are based only on observation, and no interventional (randomized) studies have been done. Research on nicotine as administered through a patch or gum is ongoing.

Nicotine improves ADHD symptoms and appears to have effects in the brain that are similar to those of stimulants. Although such findings should certainly not encourage anyone to smoke, some studies are focusing on benefits of nicotine therapy in adults with ADHD.

However, when the metabolites of nicotine were isolated and their effect on first the animal brain and then the human brain in people with schizophrenia were studied, it was shown that the effects helped with cognitive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Therefore, the nicotinergic agents, as antipsychotics which do not contain nicotine but act on the same receptors in the brain are showing promise as adjunct antipsychotics in early stages of FDA studies on schizophrenia. The prepulse inhibition (PPI) is a phenomenon in which a weak prepulse attenuates the response to a subsequent startling stimulus. Therefore, PPI is believed to have face, construct, and predictive validity for the PPI disruption in schizophrenia, and it is widely used as a model to study the neurobiology of this disorder and for screening antipsychotics. Additionally, studies have shown that there are genes predisposing people with schizophrenia to nicotine use. 

Therefore with these factors taken together the heavy usage of cigarettes and other nicotine related products among people with schizophrenia may be explained and novel antipsychotic agents developed that have these effects in a manner that is not harmful and controlled and is a promising arena of research for schizophrenia.

Nicotine and its metabolites are being researched for the treatment of a number of disorders, including ADHD, Schizophrenia and Parkinson's Disease.

The therapeutic use of nicotine as a means of appetite-control and to promote weight loss is anecdotally supported by many ex-smokers who claim to put on weight after quitting. Studies of nicotine in mice suggest it may play a role in weight-loss that is independent of appetite and studies involving the elderly suggest that nicotine affects not only weight loss, but also prevents some weight gain.