A jury has ruled the Lorillard Tobacco Co. tried to entice black children to become smokers by handing out free cigarettes and has awarded $71 million in compensatory damages to the estate and son of a woman who died of lung cancer.
This was done during the 1950s. I grew up white, middle-class, and in small town 'Murica, so while my father smoked, I never got freebies.
No, we just had to get buy on buying candy cigarettes and pretending we were old enough to smoke...getting some of us ready for the time we actually would. Of course, I'm in my mid-40s and by the time I reached adulthood it was a lot less cool for my generation. I've also never liked the sensation of inhaling smoke so I wasn't even an occasional pot smoker in college. But I do wonder what would have happened if I was 20 years older.
Still, this method definitely came in handy when the Tobacco Companies had to hook kids overseas.