The Values Of The 1920s American New Women Reflected In Tobacco Advertisements

Because of their entirely new look and maverick behaviors, the American New Women or flappers become a prominent symbol of the Roaring Twenties. As for them, the cigarette not only means the sensory stimulation and enjoyment, but also the symbol of freedom and equal rights shared with men. The increasing amount of female smokers stimulated the American tobacco industry greatly. For the major tobacco companies, the choice of female smokers decided whether they could survival in this fierce competition or not. And for those emotional young women, the influence of advertisement is great. Therefore, the design of advertisements which meets the values of the 1920 s New Women become the major challenge for advertisers. The tobacco advertisements in this period also become a mirror to reflect the values of them.In Chapter one, the author focuses on the analysis of the women's images in tobacco advertisements. The New Women in this period generally cut their hair short for freedom and convenience in caring for hair or taking part in sports and leisure activities. Simple clothing based on comfort replaced corset and hoop skirt of the Victorian era. This change emancipated the bodies of women, giving them freedom and was conducive to their good health. The New Women desire slim body, and the tobacco advertisements also described their cigarettes as the best choice to replace the high- calorie food. The second Chapter analyzes the background-setting in tobacco advertisements. Many tobacco advertisements in this period set the backgrounds in nightclubs, cinemas and stadiums, which reflected the diverse leisure activities of women, their passion for sport activities and their demand for higher life quality. The third Chapter focuses on the analysis the relationship between men and women in tobacco advertisements of this period. The advertisements in this period depicted lots of romantic or harmonious love and family pictures, which reflected New Women's admiring and cooperative attitudes toward male, their desire for romantic love and the ideal of companionate marriage. However, for the consideration of commercial interests, the tobacco advertisements meet the tastes of female consumers and male consumers in presenting the New Women's values. Since most advertisers are male, the design of tobacco advertisements also has obvious feature of male's visual angle.With classification and analysis, the author will conclude that the values of the New Women reflected in tobacco advertisements, no matter it's their aesthetics, life attitudes or marriage views, all reflected the free and independent value orientation of them. However, these values failed to reflect the real situation of the New Woman in the 1920 s.