City Room: Big Tobacco’s Spin on Women’s Lib

An exhibit of old smoking ads went on display this week at the Science, Industry and Business Library at 34th Street and Madison Avenue. (Image Courtesy of Stanford University, tobacco.stanford.edu) Enlarge Image Why do nearly one-fifth of women in America smoke? The answer goes back to an event almost 80 years ago on Fifth Avenue, which is often regarded as one of the most successful P.R. stunts in American history. This sometimes overlooked piece of history has surfaced again because of an exhibit of historic cigarette ads at the New York Public Library’s Science, Industry and Business branch at 34th Street and Madison Avenue. The show, “Not a Cough in a Carload: Images Used by Tobacco Companies to Hide the Hazards of Smoking,” which opened this week, was curated by a doctor, Robert J. Jackler, whose mother, a smoker, died... [read full story]