Surreptitious advertising

Surreptitious advertising refers to secretive communication practices potentially misleading the public about products or services. According to the EU's Television Without Frontiers Directive misleading representations of products are considered intentional "in particular if it is done in return for payment or for similar consideration".

History

In the 1920s Edward Bernays, father of spin, resorted to surreptitious advertising for the American Tobacco Company : Women, he discovered, regarded cigarettes as phallic symbols of male power and therefore unsuitable for women. Having been hired to work for ATC by George Washington Hill, Bernays wanted to make smoking attractive to women. With the help of his secretary he employed a group of women, asked them to dress up like suffragettes on strike and sent them marching along New York's Fifth Avenue. When newspaper reporters started taking their pictures, they lit cigarettes and proclaimed them "torches of freedom".