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The shocking truth about how tobacco companies marketed cigarettes as a weight loss solution in the 1920s. From fake doctor endorsements to fabricated studies, this documentary exposes one of history's most dangerous diet fads.
In this documentary, we expose:
- How tobacco companies exploited women's insecurities about weight
- The fake medical endorsements and "scientific studies" used to sell cigarettes
- Never-before-seen advertising campaigns from the 1920s
- Modern scientific evidence debunking the "cigarette diet" myth
- The lasting impact on advertising regulations and public health
📚 Featured Research:
The 2018 Health Psychology study conclusively proved that smoking status has no impact on weight loss success.
Source: NCBI, Health Psychol, May 2018
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0:00
The Roaring 20s an era of prosperity
0:02
Liberation and a desperate promises as
0:05
America embraced modernity a new
0:07
obsession began to take hold the pursuit
0:09
of the perfect
0:11
[Music]
0:11
[Applause]
0:13
[Music]
0:18
figure in the wake of World War I as
0:21
hemlines Rose and silhouett slimmed
0:22
women faced increasing pressure to
0:24
maintain what Society deed the ideal
0:26
body this pressure didn't go unnoticed
0:29
by one particular
0:30
industry the tobacco industry saw an
0:33
opportunity in an age before FDA
0:35
regulations before truth in advertising
0:38
laws they created what might be one of
0:40
the most dangerous diet fads of the 20th
0:42
century the cigarette diet reach for a
0:45
lucky instead of a suet the slogan
0:47
echoed Across America in 1925 as Lucky
0:50
Strike launched what would become one of
0:52
the most successful and Insidious
0:54
marketing campaigns in advertising
0:56
history the message was clear smoking
0:58
wasn't just fashionable it was your
1:00
ticket to a Slimmer
1:01
waistline these weren't just casual
1:04
suggestions they were calculated
1:06
campaigns backed by pseudo science and
1:08
fictitious expert
1:10
testimonials doctors back then or at
1:12
least act as plain doctors claimed
1:14
cigarettes could suppress your appetite
1:17
scientific studies funded by tobacco
1:19
companies suggested smoking could boost
1:22
metabolism the truth however would take
1:25
decades to emerge nearly a century later
1:27
in 2018 researchers finally put these
1:30
claims to the test their findings
1:33
published in health psychology were
1:34
clear smoking status had no impact on
1:37
weight loss
1:38
outcomes whether you were a smoker
1:40
ex-smoker or had never touched a
1:42
cigarette it made no difference but in
1:44
the 1920s truth wasn't what sold
1:47
cigarettes what sold was a promise a
1:50
promise of beauty of control of
1:52
acceptance and in a society with little
1:54
regulatory oversight that promise was
1:56
worth its weight in gold but how did we
1:59
get here
2:00
how did a society come to believe that
2:02
inhaling smoke could lead to a Slimmer
2:04
figure the answer lies in The Perfect
2:06
Storm of social change and corporate
2:09
opportunism the 1920s woman was
2:11
different from her Victorian
2:13
predecessor she worked she voted she
2:16
danced and critically she was expected
2:18
to be Finn the Gibson girl's voluptuous
2:21
figure had given way to the streamlined
2:23
silhouette of the flapper weight loss
2:25
wasn't just a personal choice it was a
2:27
booming industry from reducing soaps to
2:30
slimming belts Americans were spending
2:32
Millions on anything that promised to
2:34
shed pounds the tobacco industry simply
2:37
had to join the chorus George Washington
2:40
Hill president of the American Tobacco
2:42
Company saw an untapped Gold Mine women
2:45
weren't smoking in large numbers yet but
2:48
if cigarettes could be repositioned as a
2:50
weight loss Aid he could capture two
2:51
markets at once weight control and
2:53
tobacco internal documents reveal a
2:56
calculated strategy the company wasn't
2:59
just selling cigarettes they were
3:00
selling
3:01
insecurity every advertisement was
3:03
designed to tap into women's fears about
3:05
their weight and social standing mind if
3:08
a smoke became a must grow PL cigarettes
3:11
weren't just a social habit they were
3:13
positioned as Adidas's best friend the
3:16
campaigns were Relentless appearing in
3:18
magazines on billboards and even in
3:20
department store Windows the strategy
3:22
was so effective it sparked outrage from
3:24
Candy manufacturers who saw their sales
3:26
plummet as women began reaching for
3:28
cigarettes instead of sweet
3:30
but their protests only gave the tobacco
3:32
companies free publicity what's
3:35
fascinating about this period is how the
3:37
complete lack of advertising regulation
3:39
allowed companies to make absolutely
3:41
outlandish claims there was no
3:43
requirement for scientific evidence no
3:45
need to prove safety if you could print
3:48
it you could claim it and print it they
3:50
did every possible angle was exploded
3:54
cigarettes weren't just appetite
3:56
suppressants they were portrayed as
3:57
sophisticated modern and liberating
4:00
the message was clear smoking wasn't
4:02
just about staying thin it was about
4:04
being a modern woman the claims made by
4:06
tobacco companies in the 1920s would be
4:09
illegal today but back then they were
4:11
limited only by their imagination and
4:13
their imagination knew no bounds take
4:16
this 1928 Lucky Strike advertisement
4:18
featuring opera singer Sophie brazza who
4:20
proclaimed when I feel my energy lagging
4:23
I lied to Lucky it's remarkable how a
4:25
lucky gives me a lift and yet has no
4:27
effect on my throat the company's didn't
4:30
stop at celebrity endorsements one
4:32
advertisement claimed that
4:34
20679 Physicians say lies are less
4:37
irritating these weren't real surveys
4:39
just marketing Fabrications dressed in a
4:41
lap coat perhaps the most audacious were
4:44
the weight lust
4:45
testimonials I lost 15s in 30 Days by
4:48
smoking instead of
4:50
snacking these stories were typically
4:52
accompanied by dramatic before and after
4:54
photos many of which were later revealed
4:56
to be of different women in Tyrell
4:59
Chesterfield went so far as to claim
5:01
their cigarettes had been scientifically
5:02
proven to boost metabolism by
5:05
23% the study they cited it didn't exist
5:10
smoke away your double chin melt pounds
5:13
while you Puff the modern way to face
5:16
Temptation each claim more outrageous
5:18
than the last but in an era before
5:20
factchecking who was to argue the
5:22
marketing wasn't limited to
5:24
magazines tobacco companies partnered
5:27
with department stores to place
5:28
cigarette displays next to Candy
5:30
counters the message was clear choose
5:32
the healthy option choose cigarettes in
5:36
perhaps their most bizar strategy Lucky
5:38
Strike even changed their packaging from
5:40
green to White claiming it was because
5:42
market research showed the color green
5:44
made women look fat in
5:45
photographs the real reason white
5:48
packages were cheaper to produce the
5:51
campaigns were carefully crafted to
5:53
Target women across all social classes
5:56
for the wealthy cigarettes were
5:58
positioned as a sophistication tool tool
6:00
for working women they were marketed as
6:02
an appetite control method for those who
6:04
couldn't afford three full meals a day
6:07
as competition between tobacco companies
6:09
intensified the claims became
6:11
increasingly extreme by the late 1920s
6:14
cigarettes weren't just being sold as
6:16
weight loss AIDS they were being
6:17
marketed as complete meal replacements
6:20
while cigarettes are no longer marketed
6:22
as diet aids the tactics pioneered in
6:24
the 1920s live on the language has
6:26
changed but the strategy remains eerily
6:29
familiar where once women were told to
6:31
reach for a lucky instead of a sweet
6:33
today they are urged to take this pill
6:35
instead of eating the promises of quick
6:38
effortless weight loss continue to echo
6:39
through the
6:41
centuries social media influencers have
6:43
replaced cigarette wielding movie stars
6:46
pseudo scientific claims now come
6:48
wrapped in modern buzzwords like
6:49
wellness and detox but the fundamental
6:52
approach exploding insecurities for
6:54
profit remains
6:56
unchanged but unlike the 1920s we now
6:59
have the tools and regulations to
7:00
separate fact from fiction the 2018
7:03
study published in health psychology
7:05
delivered a decisive blow to the myth of
7:07
smoking for weight loss the research
7:09
followed participants through a
7:11
structured weight loss program whether
7:14
they were smokers ex-smokers or had
7:16
never smoked the results were clear
7:18
smoking had no impact on their ability
7:19
to lose weight the decades old marketing
7:22
claims were finally put to rest in May
7:25
2018 researchers at the University of
7:27
Kentucky published a groundbreaking
7:29
study that would systematically
7:30
dismantle the decades old myth of
7:32
smoking as a weight loss
7:34
Aid even more telling was what didn't
7:37
happen smokers didn't experience any
7:40
special advantage in appetite control
7:43
former smokers didn't struggle more with
7:45
weight loss than their
7:46
counterparts and perhaps most
7:48
importantly participating in the weight
7:50
loss program didn't drive anyone to
7:52
start or resume smoking as a weight
7:54
control method the study went further
7:56
examining the psychological components
7:58
of weight loss and smoking
8:00
contrary to the tobacco industry's
8:02
historical claims about cigarettes
8:04
affecting metabolism the research showed
8:06
that successful weight loss was tied to
8:08
behavioral changes and healthy eating
8:09
patterns not smoking status what makes
8:12
this study particularly powerful is its
8:14
size and
8:15
methodology with over 2,000 participants
8:18
we had the statistical power to detect
8:20
even small differences between groups
8:23
the fact that we found nsps volumes
8:25
about the false promises made by the
8:27
tobacco industry every scien ific claim
8:30
made in those 1920s advertisements from
8:32
metabolic boosts to appetite suppression
8:34
failed to materialize under scientific
8:37
scrutiny the cigarette diet wasn't just
8:39
ineffective it was dangerous today the
8:42
FDA requires rigorous testing before any
8:44
weight loss Claims can be made the wild
8:47
west of 1920s advertising is gone at
8:50
least officially but in its place a new
8:53
frontier has emerged in the unregulated
8:55
spaces of social media Echoes of the
8:58
cigarette diet persist
9:00
untested supplements dangerous fasting
9:02
protocols and Miracle products promise
9:04
the same quick fixes that Lucky Strikes
9:06
once did the cigarette diet may seem
9:08
like a relic of a less Enlighten time
9:11
but its Legacy lives on an every fat
9:13
diet and Miracle weight loss solution
9:15
that prioritizes profit over Health the
9:18
real lesson of the cigarette diet isn't
9:20
just about the dangers of unregulated
9:22
advertising it's about our Eternal
9:24
susceptibility to Promises of easy
9:26
solutions to complex problems a central
9:29
later we are still fighting the same
9:31
battle not just against misleading
9:32
marketing but against the idea that our
9:34
worth can be measured in pounds and
9:36
inches the products may change but the
9:39
promise Remains the Same happiness just
9:41
one purchase away
#Weight Loss
#Obesity
#Health Foundations & Medical Research
#Smoking & Smoking Cessation
#Health Policy