In 1941 and 1942, the American Tobacco Company commissioned nineteen AAA (Associated American Artists) artists to depict the tobacco industry for its Lucky Strike cigarette ads. The company sought reassuring scenes of rural industriousness in the American South in part to compensate for negative publicity it was receving for violating antitrust laws. Curry's submissions closely hew to the corporation's guidelines for the artists. These dictated that the "translucent leaf" be "the hero of our story" and that tobacco farmers be portrayed as "pleasant appealing types." The campaign was a commercial success; Lucky Strike cigarette sales shot to number one in 1942.