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One of Bernays' early clients was the tobacco industry. In 1929, he
orchestrated a now-legendary publicity stunt aimed at persuading
women to take up cigarette smoking, an act that at the time was
exclusively equated with men. It was considered unfeminine and

inappropriate for women to smoke; besides the occasional prostitute,
virtually no women participated in the act publicly. (Indeed, in some
countries this is very much still the case.)

Bernays initially consulted psychoanalyst A. A. Brill for advice,
Brill told him: "Some women regard cigarettes as symbols of freedom...
Smoking is a sublimation of oral eroticism; holding a cigarette in the
mouth excites the oral zone. It is perfectly normal for women to want to

smoke cigarettes. Further the first women who smoked probably had an
excess of male components and adopted the habit as a masculine act.
But today the emancipation of women has suppressed many feminine

desires. More women now do the same work as men do.... Cigarettes,
which are equated with men, become torches of freedom."
Upon hearing this analysis, Bernays dubbed his PR campaign the:

"Torches of Liberty Contingent".
It was in this spirit that Bernays arranged for New York City
d?butantes to march in that year's Easter Day Parade, defiantly smoking

cigarettes as a statement of rebellion against the norms of a male-
dominated society. Publicity photos of these beautiful fashion models
smoking "Torches of Liberty" were sent to various media outlets and
appeared worldwide. As a result, the taboo was dissolved and many

women were led to associate the act of smoking with female liberation.
Some women went so far as to demand membership in all-male smoking
clubs, a highly controversial act at the time. For his work, Bernays was

paid a tidy sum by George Washington Hill, president of the American
Tobacco Company.
Though not a commercial success in Europe, Paul Chabas's
September Morn ended up in the permanent collection of the New York

Metropolitan Museum of Art after scandalising Anthony Comstock.
Another early practitioner was Harry Reichenbach (1882-1931) a
New York-based American press agent and publicist who promoted

movies. He claims to have made famous the Paul Chabas painting,
September Morn. Supposedly, he saw a print in a Chicago art store
window. He made a deal with the store owner who had not sold any of

his 2,000 prints. Reichenbach had hired some boys to "ogle" the picture
when he showed it to the moralist crusader Anthony Comstock.