The Tobacco Industry: A Student of Machiavellianism

While on Thanksgiving break I gave in to all the hype surrounding AMC’s hit show, Mad Men, and watched the pilot episode. During the episode, Don Draper, the founding partner at a New York City add agency, has a meeting with the owners of Lucky Strike Cigarettes. In the meeting they take on the new problem presented in the cigarette industry after the Surgeon General’s Report was published in 1964, which lead to the requirement of cigarette companies to post warnings on cigarette packages and advertising. A health warning on any product, for obvious reasons, defers people from buying the product. Don Draper works with the owners of Lucky strike to circumvent the new warning label laws and to market the lucky strike brand so that people feel comforted by and continue to purchase their product.

Lucky Strike add pitch in Madmen. 

"Everyone else's tobacco is poisonous, Lucky Strike's is toasted."

The pilot episode of Mad Men began to make me think about the philosophical orientation that the Cigarette Industry holds. I believe that the Cigarette Industry closely follows Machiavellianism. Machiavellianism is based on the philosophical ideals of Niccolo Machiavelli, a philosopher during the late 1400s and early 1500s. Machiavellianism presents the idea that we should do whatever is necessary to fulfill ones desires and that the “ends always justifies the means.” This is to say that all actions (means) in obtaining what one wants (ends) are justified by attaining the end product that one desires. Machiavellianism also preaches that ethics do not matter in one’s actions when working to obtain desired end results.  However, under Machiavellianism, one should pursue actions with higher ethics, when possible, in order to achieve a desired end. For example, imagine if someone is given the options to negotiate, cheat, or murder in order to get the promotion in their company. Under Machiavellianism, that person should negotiate, as it is the most ethical action and yet it still gains the desired end of getting the promotion. Now that Machiavellianism and its aspects are explained, we can explore how the cigarette industry is a student of its ideals.   

He's just fallowing Machiavellianism!

Since 1789, when the first tobacco advertisement ran in a New York newspaper, the tobacco industry has done everything in its power to gain profit.  During the 1940’s and 1950’s advertisements were everywhere, displaying cigarettes as cool and harmless. A New York Times article stated that the 1950’s were the golden age for tobacco companies, “…cigarette ads featured endorsements from dentists, doctors, babies, and even Yankees slugger Mickey Mantle”(James and Olstad).

 

The golden age of cigarette's

 In the 1960’s the health risks of cigarettes were publicized in the Advisory Committee’s Report on Smoking and Health, based on “more than 7,000 scientific studies linking smoking with lung cancer, emphysema and other diseases”(James and Olstad). As mentioned in my description of the episode of Mad Men, the health findings did not stop cigarette companies or the cigarette industry from producing and selling cigarettes, as they simply changed their advertising strategy. The tobacco companies started, “advertising to younger markets with candy cigarettes and mascots like Joe Camel- whom a 1991 study found was more recognizable among 5 and 6 year-olds than Mickey Mouse” This marketing strategy results in kids becoming addicted to cigarettes at a young age, creating a life long consumer. The idea of advertising to a younger market and continuing to sell cigarettes at all, when they are proven to cause serious health risks is by all aspects immoral and unethical. Regardless, the cigarette industry continued to increase profit and did so with new and unethical marketing strategies. Furthermore, the cigarette industry does not regard ethics in their means, but rather is only concerned that maximum profit, the desired, end is met. 

Sources: 

Sugren General Report: http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Narrative/NN/p-nid/60   

Cigarette laws: http://www.enotes.com/federal-cigarette-labeling-advertising-act-1965-reference/federal-cigarette-labeling-advertising-act-196 

Times article: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1905530,00.html
Cheating picture: http://blogs.ksbe.edu/anchung/2008/03/07/does-the-end-always-justify-the-means/
Lucky Strike picture: http://youthvoices.net/discussion/spin-lucky-strike-cigarettes
Marlboro picture: http://www.quitsmokingpainlesslynow.com/cigarette-advertising/marlboros-for-mummy/