1929General sourceWell documented
'Torches of Freedom': Selling Cigarettes to Women
On the timeline · around 1929 ·
What happened
In 1929, the pioneering publicist Edward Bernays staged a stunt for the American Tobacco Company: young women marched in New York's Easter parade lighting cigarettes he branded 'Torches of Freedom,' recasting public smoking by women as an act of liberation.
Why it matters
It is a landmark in the history of public relations and advertising — deliberately linking a product to an idea (women's freedom) to open a vast new market and normalise smoking for women.