Tobacco Advertising and the Manipulation of Identity

Maureen Jameson Announcement
Location
Massachusetts, United States
Subject Fields
Race Studies, Women's & Gender History / Studies

Philip Morris’s contribution to the promotion of heteronormative masculine identity in the 20th century has been well analyzed by Elspeth H. Brown. This panel will (1) examine how tobacco advertising has manipulated a wide variety of identities, shaping norms for gender and sexuality as well as class, occupation, and ethnicity, and (2) ask whether the exaggeration of faux distinctions tied to branding has contributed to the rise of social division. Panelists might explore early historical traces of these effects, or trace the interplay between literary types and the types created by advertisers, or document the use of smoker-type iconography to cue recognition in film, or study the persistence of smoker-types over time and across genres, from crime fiction to noir cinema to video games and beyond, or do something else altogether. All approaches welcome.

Contact Information

Maureen Jameson

Contact Email
jameson@buffalo.edu