Professor Elisabeth Köll (University of Notre Dame)

Using archival records generated by Frank Canaday, a marketing agent working for British American Tobacco (BAT) in China at the time, my presentation will explore the business and broader socio-economic aspects of wholesale distribution and consumer-oriented marketing of cigarettes in the countryside. Whereas we know quite a bit about the business and consumption of tobacco in urban areas, my analysis focuses on the business of advertising and selling cigarettes in the countryside of Shandong and Hebei provinces during the 1920s. The talk will discuss the Western and Chinese agents’ considerable efforts to incorporate local venues and popular customs into their work which was not always aligned with the headquarters’ strategies back in Shanghai.