Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette

by Keith Wailoo

Spanning a century, Pushing Cool reveals how the twin deceptions of health and Black affinity for menthol were crafted—and how the industry’s disturbingly powerful narrative has endured to this day.

Police put Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold for selling cigarettes on a New York City street corner. George Floyd was killed by police outside a store in Minneapolis known as “the best place to buy menthols.” Black smokers overwhelmingly prefer menthol brands such as Kool, Salem, and Newport. All of this is no coincidence. The disproportionate Black deaths and cries of “I can’t breathe” that ring out in our era—because of police violence, COVID-19, or menthol smoking—are intimately connected to a post-1960s history of race and exploitation.

In Pushing Cool , Keith Wailoo tells the intricate and poignant story of menthol cigarettes for the first time. He pulls back the curtain to reveal the hidden persuaders who shaped menthol buying habits and racial markets across the world of tobacco marketers, consultants, psychologists, and social scientists, as well as Black lawmakers and civic groups including the NAACP. Today most Black smokers buy menthols, and calls to prohibit their circulation hinge on a history of the industry’s targeted racial marketing. In 2009, when Congress banned flavored cigarettes as criminal enticements to encourage youth smoking, menthol cigarettes were also slated to be banned. Through a detailed study of internal tobacco industry documents, Wailoo exposes why they weren’t and how they remain so popular with Black smokers.
 

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Race, Cultural, Audiobook

392 pages, Hardcover

Published November 2, 2021

Reviews

[Jenn Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

With such a niche topic and a professor as author, I figured this book would be more academic/denser than the average nonfiction audiobook that I tend to listen too. In actuality, I felt that this was structured and broken down in a way that would make it more accessible to a popular-history reader than I expected. Wailoo doesn't really assume that you have any prior knowledge and goes through the entire history of menthol cigarettes - from how they came to be created in the first place (far fetched medicinal claims) all the way through the devious marketing and cultural aspects.

[books4chess · Rating 4 out of 5]

"As I looked closely into the industry's menthol project, I came to understand that menthol's history is layered with trickery that takes one's breath away - both figuratively and literally. I also came to see menthol's ascent as exemplary of the broader story of racial capitalism in America".

Holy moly. Keith Wailoo presented what can best be described as an incredibly coherent, well-researched history into the entire sordid history of the history of cigarettes, marketing-funded research and the racial background behind menthol cigarettes explicitly aimed at the poorer, black communities in the USA. It's like a dissertation, but way more engaging, frustrating and with a bunch of WTF moments (and imagery).

I found myself physically repulsed, verbally expressing disgust and rolling my eyes repeatedly. This is the impact of strong writing and a real first look into something my family have been personally affected by, but I've never bothered learning more about. The primary focus is the black community and menthol cigarettes, but don't be fooled. It covers Big Tobacco in general, every possible player in this dark game and the sordid lies and deceit carried out in knowingly promoting menthols as 'non-toxic' in-spite of contrary evidence.

I've wondered so many times why smoking is not only legal, but so prominent globally and this book has more answers than I could have wished for. US influence, especially in the 1900's, was so prominent that such an industry could thrive and spread internationally, with the impacts still felt today.

Thank you, Keith. I hated every single thing I read, but I couldn't put the book down and I believe it's an essential read for all.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

[Thomas Bodenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

In light of the Biden Administration backtracking on its proposed nationwide menthol cigarette ban (in order to save black votes, and minimize reaction from health advocates, this policy change was announced late on the Friday afternoon of April 26 in the hopes it would be buried) this book is rather timely. I found Professor Wailoo's research to be first-rate in sketching the origins of menthol smoking amongst minority audiences . What I didn't know was that this was a repositioning from an earlier targeting of young people across all ethnic groups. The only flaw I found (besides timing of the Kool Jazz Festivals, they started in 1975, not 1979, I should know, I worked on their evaluation of their worthiness as a marketing tool) was the author's continual repetition of his theme. I know, I get it, and any casual reader would understand it in far fewer pages than what Professor Wailoo believes is needed. In addition, he appears to lighlly dismiss the efforts of the FDA in the classification of cigarettes as a nicotine (i.e., poisonous) delivery device, and says nothing about the Mississippi class action suit of the mid-nineties which brought about a promotional change ever greater than the television ban of 1970.

[Elexis Trinity · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really nice history of menthol-pushing, marketing logics, race-making and the construction of consumer categories; I am, however, offended on behalf of cigarettes themselves at the way Wailoo downplays the addictive qualities of tobacco products. The push matters, and the pull is malleable to narrative influences, but the materiality of tobacco and nicotine addiction is part of the picture here too. Or should be.

[Leah Lambart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting and eye opening history of how menthol cigarettes came to dominate certain markets.

[Blane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very dry and clinical (pun intended) account of Big Tobacco's ongoing attempts to create new smoking addicts. In this case, their heavy marketing to the Black community.

[A.C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an extremely interesting read. I learned a lot about how the tobacco companies functionally developed markets for themselves in which to operate. This shouldn't be surprising as this is the core function of capitalism, but it's still disappointing to learn about a system that has killed millions of people to make money. But again, capitalism.

However, you should be forewarned that this is an academic monograph, so it does tend to have some rather long stretches of rather dry prose. I didn't mind this so much, but it did result in multiple sections being rather repetitive as a result. This tone was the reason for the markdown more than the content of this book.