Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette
Keith A. Wailoo
The University of Chicago Press
Black smokers overwhelmingly prefer menthol brands such as Kool, Salem, and Newport. In Pushing Cool, 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 America: the world of tobacco marketers, consultants, psychologists, and social scientists, as well as Black lawmakers and civic groups including the NAACP. 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.