SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES: BRANDING AND DESIGN IN CIGARETTE PACKAGING

Whether you smoke or not, you can't escape the ubiquitous cigarette package, which is found in shops, bars, cafes, and vending machines from Argentina to Zimbabwe. For more than a hundred years, the well-heeled cigarette industry has hired some of the world's cleverest designers to make smoking appeal to as many different types of people in as many different cultures as possible. The result is a dazzling array of graphic design employing a startlingly broad range of images, from saints to skeletons, golden bats to butterflies, tartans to top hats. With more than 300 examples of cigarette packs, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes explores how designers have used words and pictures and eye-catching graphic design to make smoking irresistible.

Complementing the striking images is an engaging text that explores the changing ways specific cigarette brands have been promoted over the years. What factors distinguish a successful brand from a flop? Who smokes Life cigarettes and who picks up a pack of Death instead? Why did the industry market both Uptown and Downtown brands simultaneously? What makes certain symbols popular across far-flung national boundaries -- Tiger cigarettes, for example, pop up from Latin America to Indonesia. And how much has the packaging contributed to the fact that cigarettes are still consumed with fervor by people all around the world regardless of class, culture, and the well-known health risks?