A vintage Benson & Hedge's ad evokes a cheekier (but no less deadly) era of cigarette marketing

Sometimes an ad gets just a little too truthful for its own good.  By the time this 1972 full-pager for Benson & Hedges 100’s ran in Life magazine, smoking was widely understood to be associated with a range of serious diseases. So, sure, let’s equate using our product to jumping out of a plane.  Bought by Philip Morris in 1958, Benson & Hedges is a British brand and still a subsidiary of the American conglomerate Philip Morris International. This ad was part of a larger “favorite cigarette break” campaign that leaned into the fact that Benson & Hedges offered longer cigarettes at the same price point, so people kept accidentally snapping the suckers in two. “Nobody had ever mutilated a cigarette before in American advertising—cigarettes, like automobiles, had always been treated with reverent respect by their manufacturers,” Mad Woman Mary Wells Lawrence wrote in her 2002 memoir “A Big Life (In Advertising).”  “Anything anti-establishment seemed smart in the mid-’60s, so our advertising made Benson & Hedges wildly hip and cool and the cigarette to be seen with.” (Lawrence, the first female CEO listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is still alive at 91. Must not have been a smoker.) But the times? They are a-changin’. Benson & Hedges parent PMI was in the news last week as merger talks between it and Altria Group, another American purveyor of cancer, broke down. Altria itself holds a minority stake in Juul Labs, the embattled e-cigarette maker... Continue reading at 'Advertising Age'

[ Advertising Age | 2019-09-30 09:00:00 UTC ]

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This Week's Bestsellers: June 8, 2020

‘How to Be an Antiracist’ and other books addressing systemic racism return to our bestseller lists. Plus musician Mikel Jollett debuts with the memoir ‘Hollywood Park,’ and science journalist James Nestor discusses the importance of ‘Breath.’ Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Book Deals: Week of June 8, 2020

Among the notable deals last week were the sale of a memoir from a PBS NewsHour correspondent, a novel about a woman who gives birth to an owl, and international bestseller Michel Faber’s latest novel. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-06-05 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The Late-Night Revelations in “The Shapeless Unease,” a Memoir of Insomnia

Katy Waldman reviews “The Shapeless Unease,” by Samantha Harvey, a memoir about the author’s yearlong battle with chronic insomnia. Continue reading at New Yorker

[ New Yorker | 2020-06-04 18:55:26 UTC ]
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Little A acquires Greene's 'Jew(ish)' memoir

Little A, an imprint of Amazon Publishing, will publish Matt Greene's memoir, Jew(ish): A Plea.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-04 01:10:30 UTC ]
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Wayétu Moore Escapes a Civil War in Liberia. In America, She Encounters a New Kind of Danger.

“The Dragons, the Giant, the Women” is a migration memoir of separations, relocations and reunions. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-06-02 09:00:08 UTC ]
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Personal Space: Matt Ortile on Grindr, Sex, and Decolonization

On this episode of Personal Space: The Memoir Show, Sari Botton interviews Matt Ortile, author of the memoir The Groom Will Keep His Name: And Other Vows I’ve Made About Race, Resistance and Romance, published by Bold Type Books. Ortile writes about owning his identity as a gay,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-06-01 20:04:21 UTC ]
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Transworld acquires motherhood memoir from Margaret Reynolds

Transworld has bought UK and Commonwealth rights for memoir The Bright Field by Margaret Reynolds, professor of English at Queen Mary, University of London.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-01 08:56:53 UTC ]
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W&N to publish Moore's Hollywood memoir

W&N has acquired Miss Aluminium, a memoir by Susanna Moore describing her experiences in Hollywood in the 1970s and her own "hard-won arrival at selfhood". Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-31 19:23:49 UTC ]
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I Didn’t Have a Plan: The Millions Interviews Nick Flynn

My approach to memoir writing demands a different schedule. It may be more organized. I take notes, I write in condensed bursts. I do that with poetry also, but the process is more alchemic. It’s uncontainable. It’s fluid, I can drift in another realm. The post I Didn’t Have a Plan: The Millions... Continue reading at The Millions

[ The Millions | 2020-05-29 10:00:01 UTC ]
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Religion Book Deals: May 27, 2020

Christian singer/songwriter Sandra McCracken brings her debut to B&H, Convergent signs a mother and son’s memoir about opioid addiction, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Why a ‘Strange and Nerdy’ Book About Eels Is Making Waves

Patrik Svensson mixed natural history with memoir for his debut, which has become a surprise best seller and award winner in his native Sweden. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-05-22 09:00:23 UTC ]
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Personal Space: Stephanie Danler Never Thought She Would Write This Memoir

On this episode of Personal Space: The Memoir Show, Sari Botton interviews Stephanie Danler, author of the 2016 bestselling novel Sweetbitter, and now the memoir Stray, just published by Knopf. In the book, Danler poignantly tackles a variety of issues, including: the destructive nature of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-05-21 17:00:57 UTC ]
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How indie rocker Mikel Jollett overcame the toxic events in his life

"Hollywood Park," a new memoir from the frontman for the Airborne Toxic Event, recounts his childhood in L.A.'s Synanon cult — and his recovery. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-05-20 16:33:40 UTC ]
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Hutchinson to publish Bananarama memoir

Hutchinson has acquired Bananarama's memoir Really Saying Something in a "strong" six-figure deal, and will publish this October. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-20 05:26:25 UTC ]
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The Path Not Taken

Stephanie Danler’s memoir Stray invites us to look closely at our own life: our family dynamics, our loss, our trauma, and the moments of happiness that still exist within that fragile frame. With deep introspection and stunning prose, Danler tells us about the years she spent after writing her... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-05-19 11:00:55 UTC ]
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“Miss Aluminum,” Susanna Moore’s Memoir of Trauma and Transformation

Naomi Fry on “Miss Aluminum,” a new memoir by Susanna Moore, who is known for her 1995 thriller “In the Cut.” Continue reading at New Yorker

[ New Yorker | 2020-05-19 10:00:00 UTC ]
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New & Noteworthy, From a Rock Memoir to Chinese Surrealism

A selection of recent books of interest; plus, a peek at what our colleagues around the newsroom are reading. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-05-19 09:00:05 UTC ]
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MacDougall's dog walking memoir to Bonnier Books UK

Bonnier Books UK has acquired Kate MacDougall's story of the dog walking business she founded in her mid-twenties, London’s No1 Dog Walking Agency.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-19 04:39:15 UTC ]
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Book Deals: Week of May 18, 2020

Among the big deals this week are a new book by rapper Gucci Mane, a memoir of addiction and recovery by a politician and her son, and a nonfiction book by the cocreator of Showtime’s Billions. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-15 04:00:00 UTC ]
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At Informa, Virtual Events Are a Testing Ground for Exhibitions’ Hybrid Future

The COVID-19 pandemic was a sudden jolt to organizers of face-to-face events, and perhaps none more so than Informa plc, the world's largest exhibitions firm, which has been forced to cancel or postpone more than 450 live events originally scheduled for the spring and summer. But even as... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2020-05-14 17:31:50 UTC ]
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