ABSTRACT

In an episode of the television show Mad Men, Don Draper, the creative director of the advertising agency Sterling Cooper, engages in a pitch on the advertising potential of tobacco:

This is the greatest advertising opportunity since the invention of cereal … How do you make your cigarettes? … Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. And do you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of a road that screams with reassurance that whatever you’re doing is OK. You are OK. 1

The Mad Men of the tobacco industry have long used packaging to undermine health warnings, to engage in false and misleading advertising, and to encourage consumers to initiate and maintain the use of its addictive products.