Torches

Have you ever heard the phrase "Torches of Freedom"? Kind of puts in mind a picture of the Statue of Liberty,but that is not where it came from. The phrase was first employed by psychoanalyst A.A. Brill when describing the desire for women to smoke and was used to encourage women to smoke by using their desire for equality and a better life. We all know how that turned out,it has made it nearly full circle almost a century later in the U.S. In other parts of the world in the 1990s tobacco companies seeking to expand their markets,trotted the "Torches" phrase out again along with the more current "You've come a long way baby" slogan. When I read about this I thought they must be targeting fairly young countries women,but that isn't really the case. In Spain the increase in young women smokers rose 10% from 1978 to 1997. The increases in women smokers showed even greater percentages in Germany and Japan due to the advertising denoting cigarettes as symbols of Western Freedom.
It is hard to believe this is happening when it is only an advertising gimmick and barely has a nodding acquaintance with the truth,but there you have it.