Browsing by Subject "Cigarettes"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    On the Nature of 20th and 21st Century Gendered Marketing Strategies and Perceptions Toward Cigarette Products in the United States and China
    (2019-03) Goff, Trip
    This thesis examines the prevailing sentiments toward cigarettes and the targeted marketing strategies in the 20th and 21st century of the evolving markets in the United States and China. Specifically, marketing campaigns featuring women as the main subject are analyzed, as well as their effects on smoking rates and what cultural significance can be extracted by the advertisements’ portrayals. Through this analysis, a commentary on historically exploitative marketing tactics can be made, and themes and trends revealed can be extrapolated to the modern industry. Chapter 1 discusses the development of gendered marketing and perceptions toward tobacco and its gendered use in the early 20th century in the United States and China. The subsequent chapter compares contemporary 21st century public opinion in both markets and smoking trends, as well as modern incarnations of cigarette marketing. This thesis will argue that both markets heavily encouraged women to smoke in the early 20th century, and, while both demographics were slow to take up smoking cigarettes, the advertisements acted as a reflection of shifting sentiments toward women smoking and resulted in an increase in use, an increase resilient to today. Further evidence suggests an uptick in smoking among this demographic may be possible in China based on prevailing trends.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    The Persistence of Smoke: Opera in One Act, Libretto by John Justice
    (2011) Lam, George Tsz-Kwan

    The Persistence of Smoke is a documentary opera. The libretto is based on interviews with various individuals related to the former Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company headquarters in Durham, North Carolina.

    The cigarette industry once dominated Durham, but saw its decline in the 1990s as the link between cancer and smoking became increasingly clear. The American Tobacco Company and the Liggett and Myers Tobacco Company were once the biggest cigarette manufacturers in the city. As these companies left Durham, their factories and tobacco warehouses first sat vacant, but were gradually preserved and transformed into new spaces for offices, apartments and restaurants.

    This project focused on the former Liggett and Myers headquarters along Main Street, a collection of buildings now known as "West Village". I interviewed current and former Durham residents who had a connection with these buildings, including local business representatives, community leaders, former Liggett employees, historians, current residents in the downtown area, municipal urban planners, journalists, and an architect. These interviews were given to local playwright John Justice, who created a libretto based on the themes that emerged.

    The opera's story focuses on Kevin, an architect about to unveil his visionary master plan for redeveloping several defunct cigarette factories in an unnamed city. As Kevin leaves his newly renovated apartment for the press conference, he is confronted by his estranged father Curtis, a former cigarette worker who desperately wants to reconcile and reconnect, deliriously recalling the glory days of tobacco and the money that followed.