Thus, in the same decade as the Crimean War, the cigarette industry had spawned a powerful new habit. Within 20 years tobacco merchants hit on the idea of using catchy newspaper ads and testimonials to attract new customers. A machine patented in 1880 mass-produced the cigarette and kept the price low, while pictures of sports heroes and smiling ladies sold the cigarette image to the male public. But what kept them coming back for more? Nicotine dependency! As health writer William Bennet, M.D., puts it: “Mechanization, clever advertising and marketing techniques made their contribution, but [without nicotine] they never would have sold much dried cabbage.”

To increase their grip on the American market, advertisers aimed at the ladies. “Tobacco advertising in the late 1920’s was characterized as ‘gone mad,’” reports Jerome E. Brooks. But advertising kept Americans buying cigarettes during and after the economic depression of 1929. Huge budgets (about $75,000,000 in 1931) promoted the cigarette as an aid to remaining slim, an alternative to candy. Movies glorifying cigarette-smoking stars, such as Marlene Dietrich, helped create a sophisticated image. Thus in 1939, on the eve of a new world war, American women joined men in consuming 180 billion cigarettes.

Another war! Soldiers again got free cigarettes, even in their field rations. “Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War!” ran a well-promoted ad, capitalizing on the patriotic wartime mood. With cigarette consumption in the United States estimated at 400 billion yearly by the end of World War II, who could question the place of tobacco in the world?

Indeed, who could question the importance of cigarettes to postwar Europe, where at one point cartons of cigarettes replaced currency in the black market? American soldiers stationed in Europe bought subsidized cigarettes for as little as five cents a pack and with them paid for everything​—from new shoes to girlfriends. Tax-free military sales of cigarettes shot up from 5,400 per capita in 1945 to 21,250 in just two years.