In 1980, the Office on Smoking and Health, a federal government agency responsible for leading strategic efforts aimed at preventing tobacco use and promoting smoking cessation among youth, proposed to drop certain antismoking public service messages featuring Brooke Shields because the model had recently been featured as part of a controversial ad campaign for designer Calvin Klein. The ads featured the scantily clad underage Shields and sexually suggestive slogans. Understanding the value of using Shields for television spots, posters, and print ads against smoking, the American Lung Association took over the campaign to carry an important message to the young women of America. The comic image in this poster uses the popularity and status of Shields to lampoon the glamorization of cigarettes in other forms of media and entertainment. Appropriating the style of a magazine cover, the carefully placed cigarettes, with one sticking out of each ear, evoke a playfully negative image of cigarettes and smoking. This association of smoking with ugliness or absurdity, and nonsmoking with beauty or empowerment, has recently been used in a campaign by the Centers for Disease Control featuring model Christy Turlington.
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