Bonsack machine
An 1881 invention made it much easier to mass-produce cigarettes 鈥� but not to sell them. It was time for advertisers to get creative.
In 1881, James Bonsack developed a machine that made it far easier to mass-produce cigarettes. But at the time, other tobacco products were much more popular 鈥� so manufacturers had to find new ways of getting people鈥檚 attention. Tim Harford explains why the methods they devised are still working on consumers today.
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Image credit
Sources
the Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America Allan M. Brandt, Basic Books, New York 2017
Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition Robert Proctor, University California Press, 2011
Promise Them Everything: A Cultural History of Cigarette Advertising Health Claims Terrence H. Witkowski 1991
Broadcasts
- Sat 12 Oct 2019 04:50GMT大象传媒 World Service except East and Southern Africa & South Asia
- Sat 12 Oct 2019 13:50GMT大象传媒 World Service News Internet
- Sun 13 Oct 2019 14:50GMT大象传媒 World Service except Americas and the Caribbean, East Asia & South Asia
- Sun 13 Oct 2019 21:50GMT大象传媒 World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Sun 13 Oct 2019 22:50GMT大象传媒 World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Mon 14 Oct 2019 03:50GMT大象传媒 World Service South Asia
Podcast
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50 Things That Made the Modern Economy
The stories of inventions, ideas and innovations which helped create the economic world
