Silk cigarette inserts 1900-36
Doctoral Candidate: Adrian Slaney
Supervisors: Dr Caroline Archer-Parré, Dr David Osbaldestin
In the preface to the Handbook of Worldwide Tobacco and Trade Silk Issues, the term ‘Silk’ referred ‘to any printed or woven picture, on silk, satin, twill, ribbon, canvas, velvet or net fabric.’ Originally issued in American cigarette packets between 1905 and 1917, these ‘giveaways’ proved a very popular promotional item which was taken up by twenty British tobacco manufacturers at the advent of the First World War (1914). Silk cigarette inserts continued to be issued following paper restrictions announced by the government in 1917, but had faded out by the mid-1920s, except for a small resurgence in 1933-4. The subjects included religion, cricket, football, art, flags, army and naval badges, flowers, and clan tartans. Silk inserts were an adaptation of the popular cigarette cards. In North America between 1900 and 1936 silk cigarette cards, or inserts, were produced by tobacco companies as calculated promotional giveaways for men to pass on to women. Contemporary adverts listed various household items which could be created from woven and printed silk inserts, ranging from tea cosies and tablecloths to clothing. The Canadian Cigar and Tobacco Journal (October 1912), stated that the silk insert had a ‘feminine influence’ and was proving very popular with women and children. In the light of Petrone and Rudy’s comments, the aim of this thesis is to determine to what extent silk cigarette cards were simply imaginative, genderless, promotional items targeted at a smoking society, or were part of a wider strategy to lure women in particular to embrace smoking.
This thesis argues that silk inserts can be regarded as more than simple marketing tools, but as sites of cultural interaction that both reflected and reinforced local, regional and national identities.
