Tobacco Documents Online

CONFIDENTIAL I want to tell you what happened in a community wide anti-smoking campaign which took place in the town of Greenfield, Iowa, in August, 1969. The inhabitants attempted to go "cold turkey" together, all smokers stopping at once. The idea stemmed from the plot of the United Artists motion picture Cold Turkey, in which an Iowa town attempts to give up smoking to win a prize offered by a cigarette company. It was more than sheer coincidence that the picture was being shot on location in -- of all places -- Greenfield, Iowa, at the time the town quit s~oking. The studio's publicity department .paid them $6000 for the community effdrt. The movie will have its world premiere in Des Moines o.n January 30, and will be released nationally sometime thereafter. The release will undoubtedly focus new attention on quitting cigarettes by going cold turkey, and on community wide quit campaigns. The film makers will be anxious to capitalize on their anti-smoking theme, and the anti smoking people will probably be quick to capitalize on the film's publicity We haven't seen the film, but we know a lot about it. Produced by Norman Lear, it stars Dick van Dyke as an Iowa preacher who encourages the washed-up run-down town of Eagle Rock to quit smokin~j.. Bob Newhart, a Hollywood version of a Madison Avenue publicity man, has persuaded Edward Everett Horton, owner of the Valiant Tobacco Company, to sponsor a contest giving $25 million to any town in America which can talk all its citizens into giving up smoking for 30 days. Newhart is convinced that no town can do so, and that Valiant will get much favorable, free publicity from the contest. The late Mr. Horton's accomplished and wordless portrayal of the company president will not be a very charitable one. Back in Iowa, at least four types of pressure are brought to bear on the populace. Van Duke works on the religious and moral end, th,e town ban~<~r threatens to call in some bank loans, the local.. Right Wing Society is policing the local citizens to make sure no one smokes, and an ever increasingly worried Newhart starts trying to tempt the populace with free cigarettes. A blockade on all main highways helps enforce an embargo on tobacco, so Newhart is forced to such ruses as shooting cartons across the lines by mortars or by dropping them from helicopters. .

-2- The process of the cold turkey campaign turns Eagle Rock into an ugly community, and the Right Wing Society_becomes more. and more Gestapo-like. In one sense the story is less about smoking than it is about the transformation of character brought about by greed. We haven't read the script, but we understand that there is gunfire in some of the final scenes. In one of Van Dyke's restless dreams he imagines himself as a Marlboro Man. Those involved in the film feel it is a very good one, and United Artists even considered releasing it in 1970 in order to qualify for the coming academy awards. The cast is strong -- comic Tom Poston, actress Pipper Scot and the comedy team of Bob and Ray (Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding) play supporting roles -- the topic is relevant, and the treatment sounds humorous. Although the pr~sentation will b~ generally unfavorable towards i:he tobacco industry, there will be a few items of consolation: quitting cigarettes will be portrayed as (1) diff,i,c~u.~t, and (2) followed by immediately unpleasant consequences. ~E~ (3) many of the anti-smoking kooks will be portrayed as kooks and carnival con -men. When the real-life town of Greenfield tried to go Cold Turkey, it did so in a truly carnival atmosphere. The merchants have always sponsored a mid summer Crazy Day in Greenfield, with sidewalk sales, baby carriage I~arades, prizes for the best pet, free ballons, and so on. In 1969 the Crazy'Day was named Cold Turkey D:ay, (CTD) and to the normal hustle and bustle was added a fro~, jumls.ing con- test, a rock music exhibition, a fire hose fight between the Jaycees and the volunteer fire department, the presence of the film crew, appearances by Senator Frank Moss, Miss American Teen-ager, and other celebra~ies, not to mention the American Cancer Society, ~the American Heart Association, the Seventh Day adventists, Smoke Stoppers, etc, including the Department of Health Education and Welfare. All smokers were asked to sign a pledge to quit smoking, all non smokers were asked to sign a pledge not to start. At the end of the day there was a bonfire into which smokers were encouraged to throw their cigarettes, cigars and pipes, and 30 days of abstinence began. Smoking was discouraged, and even those who didn't try to quit refrained from smoking in public. Cigarette sales dropped 30%.. despite the influx of tourists and movie makers, and most merchants either removed them from their shelves or a.t leas~ removed them from view. A large sign was erected in a cornfield at the edge of towB saying "Welcome to Greenfield, the town that went Cold Turkey. No smoking, please.' (On Halloween a year later some high school students repainted it to read "Welcome to Marlbor~ Country", which everyone agreed was a fine prank.)

-3- When the-30 days were up, IQ buttons were awarded the successful abstainers at a public ceremony and United Artists presented the $6000 to the mayor, who didn't know what to do with it. (After considerable debate about erecting a monument to the Cold Turkey campaign, the money was spent to buy a set of chimes which ring out hourly in the town square. Among the other-monuments con- sidered, but rejected,was a combination bird bath - wading pool- and fountain built in the shape of a huge ash tray 20 feet in diameter, with an eight-foot cigarette butt in its center.) It should be evident that the people of Greenfield have a delicious sense of proportion and are in little danger of taking themselves too se ri.ously. IncidentRlly, the evidence suggests that going co~d turkey is not a very effective way to stop smoking. Although we have never re- searched the procedures to find out which is best, we have noted the admitted failure of psychologists seeking an easy way to quit cold and the relative success of the Smoke Watcher~ Society which stresses a gradual tapering off. Greenfield looked as if it would become important, so at Easter time, 1970, we sent some questionnaires to Greenfield to find out what had happed there. . We wanted to know (1) the effect of the anti-smoking campaign had on the town's long run smoking behavior, (2) whether th~ smokers found substitutes for their abandonned cigarettes, (3) whether there were short range or long term probl,ems associated with quitting, such as aggressiveness, overweight, alcoholism, etc, and (4) whether we could discriminate between nonsmokers, nonquitters, would-be quitters, and quitters on the basis of other variables related to smoking history, demography, or personality. Because our Product Opinion Lab was the only organization to make an .in-depth study of what happened in Greenfield we are now in the favorable position of knowing more about a quit-smoking campaign than the anti smoking people. Further, the town council, which, is busy publicizing the community and its campaign, is now reliant on us for its statistics. Needless to say we intend to tell them almost nothing, and so far welve released only some figures which tend to belittle their success) figures much lower than some tallies made locally just after the campaign. .