![Picture](/uploads/4/5/4/8/45484505/9473448.png)
America was brought up on tobacco as a cash crop, ever since the moment Europeans were introduced to it by Native Americans. Tobacco has always been a vital part of the American economy, but starting from the end of the nineteenth century is when a huge boom of industrial advancement, increased advertising, and modern business practices took control and bumped the tobacco industry up a notch (Reid, 2003).
Before the Civil War, almost all tobacco manufacturing took place in Europe. However, the industrialization in the US following the war allowed the US to take tobacco production into its own hands- and with it the advertising. Production went up hugely from 1870 to 1880, rising from 16 billion cigarettes to 533 billion. James Bosnack’s cigarette making machine created in 1881 could turn out 120,000 cigarettes daily, nearly 40 times that of factory workers rolling them by hand (Reid, 2003).
Just as technology was changing, so was advertising. The westward expansion had spread apart the nation, but the circulation of newspapers was common by the 1860’s with multicolumn advertisements being common by the 1870’s (Olney, 2003). One of these multicolumn advertisements can be shown by the 1895 advertisement for Duke tobacco. WB Duke and Sons tobacco would eventually become the superpower of the tobacco industry in 1889. Duke took advantage of the up and coming technology of the era by buying out Bosnack’s machines and devoting 20% of his sales revenue to advertising (Reid, 2003).
The importance of advertisements was vital in growing the tobacco industry in the late nineteenth century, as cigarette use would be predominate in the culture of the next century. These advertisements gave a certain image of superiority. Words commonly used to describe tobacco in these specific advertisements are “purity,” indicating a sense of quality and perfection. The Maryland Club Mixture advertisement shows a white man in a suit smoking a cigarette, which locks in the market for tobacco products. People want to feel successful and attractive, which is what Maryland Club Mixture is advertising. The mass production of tobacco was the final push necessary to plummet the United States into the era of consumer products.
Advertisements:
Duke Tobacco. The Atlanta Constitution 8 July 1895: 8. Web.
http://search.proquest.com/docview/495274075/EAC4C713DB3F48D4PQ/26?accountid=14244
Maryland Club Mixture Tobacco. New York Times 1896: 2. Web.
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1016069130/EAC4C713DB3F48D4PQ/17?accountid=14244
Works Consulted:
Olney, Martha L. "Advertising." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 31-35. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.
Reid, Roddey. "Tobacco Industry." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 8. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 133-137. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.
Before the Civil War, almost all tobacco manufacturing took place in Europe. However, the industrialization in the US following the war allowed the US to take tobacco production into its own hands- and with it the advertising. Production went up hugely from 1870 to 1880, rising from 16 billion cigarettes to 533 billion. James Bosnack’s cigarette making machine created in 1881 could turn out 120,000 cigarettes daily, nearly 40 times that of factory workers rolling them by hand (Reid, 2003).
Just as technology was changing, so was advertising. The westward expansion had spread apart the nation, but the circulation of newspapers was common by the 1860’s with multicolumn advertisements being common by the 1870’s (Olney, 2003). One of these multicolumn advertisements can be shown by the 1895 advertisement for Duke tobacco. WB Duke and Sons tobacco would eventually become the superpower of the tobacco industry in 1889. Duke took advantage of the up and coming technology of the era by buying out Bosnack’s machines and devoting 20% of his sales revenue to advertising (Reid, 2003).
The importance of advertisements was vital in growing the tobacco industry in the late nineteenth century, as cigarette use would be predominate in the culture of the next century. These advertisements gave a certain image of superiority. Words commonly used to describe tobacco in these specific advertisements are “purity,” indicating a sense of quality and perfection. The Maryland Club Mixture advertisement shows a white man in a suit smoking a cigarette, which locks in the market for tobacco products. People want to feel successful and attractive, which is what Maryland Club Mixture is advertising. The mass production of tobacco was the final push necessary to plummet the United States into the era of consumer products.
Advertisements:
Duke Tobacco. The Atlanta Constitution 8 July 1895: 8. Web.
http://search.proquest.com/docview/495274075/EAC4C713DB3F48D4PQ/26?accountid=14244
Maryland Club Mixture Tobacco. New York Times 1896: 2. Web.
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1016069130/EAC4C713DB3F48D4PQ/17?accountid=14244
Works Consulted:
Olney, Martha L. "Advertising." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 31-35. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.
Reid, Roddey. "Tobacco Industry." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 8. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 133-137. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 27 Jan. 2015.