Bernays recruited debutantes by selling public smoking as a women’s rights act

Evidence

Bernays procured these names from the editor of Vogue magazine and convinced the women that their participation in publicly smoking on Fifth Avenue would lead to the expansion of women’s rights. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1255

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader Bernays/attention-harvesting history already established in earlier chapters of this book — the shaping of consumer demand through engineered social spectacle. — connects to: Bernays framed smoking as liberation to sell cigarettes to women. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 238; Cigarettes were marketed to women as a diet aid. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 241
• CANDY: A fun, compact story — Bernays turning debutantes into unwitting attention agents for Lucky Strike via a Vogue editor’s name list.

Broader Connections

• Bernays framed smoking as liberation to sell cigarettes to women. #expands (0.97) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 238
• Cigarettes were marketed to women as a diet aid. #complicates (0.72) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 241