The tobacco companies have long understood the importance of women and girls in the overall market for cigarettes and as a source of new customers. They have conducted tensive market research on the attitudes of women and girls to better understand how to target their products and their advertising. By focusing their research on how females view themselves, their aspirations and the social pressures they face, the cigarette companies have developed some of the most aggressive and sophisticated marketing campaigns in story for reaching and influencing women and girls. The consequences of these campaigns are staggering. Smoking among girls and young women increased dramatically in the 1990s. From 1991 to 1999, smoking among high school girls increased from 27 to 34.9 percent.1 Smoking rates among women over 18 have barely declined over the past 10 years and omen are now almost as likely as men to smoke.2 The Early Years Though the slogans have anged over time, the tobacco industrys targeted marketing of women can be traced back to the 1920s. While women were depicted in cigarette ads as nonsmoking admirers of moking men at first, by 1927 advertisements with women smoking began to appear in womens magazines.3 One of the most famous early cigarette advertising campaigns directed at women was Lucky Strikes Reach for Lucky Instead of A Sweet,

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