The Immoral Cigarette Advert That Changed Health Marketing

There is something of an irony that one of the most important pieces of marketing in terms of changing and establishing a strict code of conduct for life science marketing and health-adjacent advertising came from one of the most unhealthy products money can buy.

Whilst the concept is so shocking to a 2020s audience that it was believed to be a joke or an urban myth, a cigarette company once genuinely advertised their product with a slogan claiming that more doctors smoke their brand than any other.

This campaign, launched by RJ Reynolds’ tobacco brand Camel, is considered to be amongst the least ethical, most deceptive and most manipulative marketing campaigns ever undertaken, and it has served as a flashpoint for increased scrutiny in advertising, particularly when healthcare is involved.

It highlights the power of subtext and implication. The survey that the company cited as justification for its claims allegedly surveyed over 113,000 doctors, with the brand cited most being Camel.

This does not say how many doctors said they did not smoke at all or whether free samples were given to doctors, but the manipulative point is to connect the symbol of health and wellness that is the doctor with cigarettes, which clearly and obviously cause exceptional harm to people.

None of the doctors are specific individuals, as even in 1946 that was seen as a breach of ethics, but regardless of this, there was a clear attempt to associate smoking with symbols of health.

At the time, doctors did not necessarily complain because of the idealised way the adverts showed their profession, even appearing in medical journals.

All of this is in hindsight considered to be strong breaches of both advertising and medical ethics, and this has in turn led to a huge range of legal regulations surrounding the use of healthcare claims and implied health endorsements.

Such an advertising campaign, notwithstanding the fact that tobacco advertising is illegal, would be against the law today, and that is due to the greater advances and awareness found today.