Robert K. Jackler, MD

Current Research Interests

Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising (SRITA)

SRITA is a Stanford research group which analyzes the effects of tobacco advertising, marketing, and promotion. Participants in this interdisciplinary program include faculty and students from several Stanford School of Medicine departments as well as the departments History and Anthropology.

Resources for Study:

• Digital collection of over 12,000 historical and contemporary magazine and newspaper tobacco advertisements (The original print advertisements were donated to the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution in 2/11)

• Video advertising collection including hundreds of early TV tobacco advertisements
(http://www.youtube.com/stanfordtobacco)

• Compilation of tobacco industry web and social media based promotions
(http://behind-the-smoke.tumblr.com/)

• Collection of internal tobacco industry documents relating to advertising campaigns


Resource for Scholars:

Thematically organized, annotated archive of print and video advertising collections available on the web. (tobacco.stanford.edu)

Research Priorities:
1. Use of medical and scientific themes to reassure a worried public about the health hazards of smoking
2. The marketing of “safer” cigarettes including filters, low tar and nicotine, and “lighter” smoke
3. Techniques used in targeting of specific populations including women, youth, African Americans
4. Endorsements by prominent movie and TV stars, athletes, and politicians
5. Use of cultural icons such as jazz music, religious symbols, patriotic imagery, and trusted professionals.
6. Use of social media (eg Facebook) in promoting tobacco use and as an educational tool communicating the dangers of smoking


Museum Exhibit

The “Not a Cough in a Carload: Images from the Campaign by the tobacco Industry to Hide the hazards of Smoking” exhibit debuted at Stanford University in January 2007 subsequently displayed at the University of California, San Francisco, Harvard Medical School, the New York Public Library, South Station in Boston, Philadelphia, McCallen Texas, Louisanna State University, Washington University, St Louis, and Vanderbilt University. A second exhibit travelled to 3 major cities in Brazil.

Scholarship (selected publications)

Samji HA, Jackler RK. "Not one single case of throat irritation": Misuse of the of the image of the otolaryngologist in cigarette advertising. Laryngoscope 118: 415-427, 2008

Lum KL, Polansky JR, Jackler RK, Glantz SA. Signed, sealed, and delivered: Big tobacco in Hollywood, 1927-1951. Tobacco Control 2008 Oct;17(5):313-23

Jackler RK, Samji HA. The Price Paid – Mid 20th Century Tobacco funded research designed to obfuscate the emerging truth that smoking causes head and neck cancer. Laryngoscope Jan 2012

Lecture “Not a Cough in a Carload” by Dr Jackler:

On Stanford I Tunes U or
Research Channel:
http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?rID=24435&fID=345