American Decades
Women's Liberation
Cigarettes and Liberation.
One of the most popular advertising campaigns of the early 1970s was that of Virginia Slims cigarettes. The cigarette was thinner than most, but beyond that, hardly remarkable. The ad campaign, however, was an eye grabber. Magazines and bill-boards displayed slender, apparently self-assertive models in the latest fashions clutching the cigarette. The ad copy said, "You've Come a Long Way, Baby." Sometimes featuring an insert photograph of women in turn-of-the-century dress being punished for smoking by police, ministers, or other authority figures, the ad successfully tied cigarette smoking to the burgeoning women's liberation movement. Emphasizing the fact that at one time it was thought unladylike to smoke, the ad implied that to continue smoking Virginia Slims was an act of rebellion against women's traditional roles. Hugely successful as an ad campaign, the caption "You've Come a Long Way, Baby" also...
[The entire page is 5150 words long]
1970's Lifestyles and Social Trends
