pb loaned me this book, Toxic Sludge is Good for You!: Lies, Damn Lies, and the Public Relations Industry. It starts out by telling how the "torches of liberty contingent," New York debutantes who marched in the 1929 Easter Parade openly smoking cigarettes, thus breaking the taboo against female smoking and seen at the time as a coup for "female amancipation" was actually a coup for the American Tobacco Company, who's president paid Edward Bernays, its "brilliant behind-the-scenes organizer" to orchestrate the event: "The event is still hailed in public relations lore as a 'triumph.' Some people consider it the coup that launched a whole new, distinctively American industry." That's all I've read so far, but I think this book shall be interesting. From more than one perspective. ;)

Oh look, here's the whole intro to the book.