Hogeon Lee
Representative of woman rights organization
Civil and Equal Rights Committee
1200 H Street NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 200004

17th September 1970

F. William Free
Advertising executive of Silva Thins Cigarettes
American Tobacco Company
6603 W Broad St, Richmond,
VA 23230, USA

Dear Mr. W. Free

I am Hogeon Lee, the representative of woman rights organization. We work with Civil and Equal Rights Committee (CERC) and speak for the entire women’s voice in the world. I would like to accuse the rousing problem of violating women dignity, especially the advertisement that was published a month ago, in ‘Vintage Magazine’.

‘Cigarettes are like women. The best ones are thin and rich.’ The advertisement places emphasis on both cigar box and woman by placing them in the center, the same level, which objectifies the woman as a product. Such objectification lowers the value of women, perhaps causes sexual violence. Also, the text, ‘The best ones are thin and rich’, shapes misconceptions of beauty. If you think …show more content…
The lighting only highlights the model’s hips and breasts. These parts represent tools for men’s sensual pleasure. However, less light is shone on her face. By deleting the specific facial emotion of a model, it disparages the personal identity of her. Moreover, the pattern of woman’s dress is unnecessarily identical to the pattern of box, and the combination of black background and lighting symbolizes the woman as a cigarette. The woman leans on left of the cigar box. It is most likely a subtle reference to the picture on the right where man holds a cigarette between his lips, a cigar draped on the left top of box. These effects dehumanise the woman to a simple expedient for selling, degrading women’s right and concept of sex and gender to the same level as cigarettes. This directly links to the problematic title, ‘Cigarettes are like