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Tobacco companies spend $ 8 billion a year on advertising, promotions and sponsorships in America and Europe.
Joe Camel and the Marlboro Cowboy, because of their popular appeal, besides increasing the number of smokers of all ages all over the world, have been very useful for the five big cigarette producers to raise prices - prices that are not related to the quality of the product, but are determined by the advertising messages, icons and slogans.
Now the cartel of cigarette manufacturers say they are willing to abolish advertising, including Formula 1. But the prices of the most popular brands, higher than ever thanks to the "mythical" slogans, appear to have no intention to go down in the future. In fact there is no reason to, as there is no competition.
The Marlboro Man
The Marlboro Man is part of a tobacco advertising campaign for Marlboro cigarettes. The Marlboro Man was first concepted by Leo Burnett in 1954.
"It would turn the rookie smokers on to Marlboro… the right image to capture the youth market's fancy… a perfect symbol of independence and individualistic rebellion"… The ads were originally conceived as a way to popularize filtered cigarettes, which at the time were considered feminine.
The Marlboro ad campaign is said to be one of the most brilliant ad campaigns of all time. It transformed a feminine campaign, with the slogan 'Mild as May', into one that was masculine, in a matter of months.
Although there were many Marlboro Men, the cowboy proved to be the most popular. This led to the “Marlboro Cowboy” and “Marlboro Country” Actor and author William Thourlby is said to have been the first Marlboro Man.
The models who portrayed the Marlboro Man were New York Giants Quarterback Charley Conerly, Darrell Winfield, Dick Hammer, Brad Johnson, Bill Dutra, Dean Myers, Robert Norris, Wayne McLaren, Davd McLean and Tom Mattox. Two of them, McLaren and McLean, died of lung cancer.
In October 2006, USA Today listed The Marlboro Man as #1 on their list of Imaginary Luminaries: the 101 most influential people who never lived.
Leo Burnett
Leo Burnett (October 21, 1891 - June 7, 1971) was an advertising executive famous for creating such icons as the Jolly Green Giant, the Marlboro Man, the Pillsbury Doughboy and Tony the Tiger.
Leo Burnett, famous for creating the Marlboro Man: “It would turn the rookie smokers on to Marlboro …the right image to capture the youth market
In 1935, he created his own agency - now known as Leo Burnett Worldwide. During the 1950s he moved his agency to Chicago. He was inducted into the Copywriters Hall of Fame in 1961, and retired in 1967.
Burnett followed Walter Lippman's philosophy of creating an image around the product. Until his time, advertising centered on long text descriptions of the product, with detailed arguments as to why it was better than competing products.
Burnett concentrated on style, creating icons as a symbol of the product. He stressed that the creator of an ad needed to somehow capture and reflect what he called the "inherent drama" of the product.
Joe Camel
The cartoon "Joe Camel" (1988), said to "appeal younger, male smokers, who had been deserting Camel in droves".
May 1992: Due to the Joe Camel campaign, Camel's share of sales among 18- to 24 year olds has increased from 4.4% to 7.9%.
One analyst says: "Before the [Joe Camel] campaign, the brand was in free fall. The turnaround has been miraculous". …Who knows Camel's share of sales among 14- to 18 year olds?
Nicholas Price, the British artist who created Joe for an ad published in “Lui”, a French men's magazine, gave him expressive brown eyes with suggestive eyebrows, and a fun-loving grin.
A camel isn't necessarily the most handsome of beasts, but Joe was hip, he looked suave in his tuxedo, and he always seemed to be doing the most exciting things.
Politicians and some members of the Federal Trade Commission, among others, felt Smooth Joe was able to seduce young children into a life of ugly yellow teeth.
In 1991, the "Journal of the American Medical Association" published a study showing that more children 5 and 6 years old could recognize Joe Camel than they could recognize "Mickey Mouse" or "Fred Flintstone", and alleged that the "Joe Camel" campaign was supposedly targeting children.
In 1997, under pressure from the impending trial, Congress and various public-interest groups, RJR announced it would settle out of court and voluntarily end its Joe Camel campaign.
Big Tobacco and the doctors
The first "Health Warnings" said that Camel was the cigarette the doctors smoked most and that Marlboro was "a cigarette recognised by eminent medical authorities for its advantages to the nose and throat".
Philip Morris claimed: "No worry about throat irritation - even when you inhale".
In 1949, RJ Reynolds told the world that "Not one case of throat irritation due to smoking Camels!". Great!
1930 - Athletes say- "Camels don't get your wind!
But Lucky Strike keeps up too: well over "20679 physicians say LUCKIES are less irritating"… "Many prominent athletes smoke Luckies all day long with no harmful effects to wind or physical condition".
Being aware of the potential health damage on the entire system caused by tobacco smoking (as confirmed in a lot of proves and documents), Big Tobacco drew the consumer's attention to the throat.
This way they implied that a bout of coughing is all you could experience.
In the 50's according to the doctors the Camel was described with these slogans: "shooting to the nerves" or "renews and restores bodily energy". They suggested: "for digestion's sake … smoke Camels!"
Nowadays the advertising appears in a very different way. However, do not be taken in! It has just become craftier and more refined.
Bullshit in pills
1930 - Athletes say - "Camels don't get your wind!"
1939 - "Philip Morris - a cigarette recognised by eminent medical authorities* for its advantages to the nose and throat".
1942 - Juleps: Smoke all you want without unpleasant symptoms of over-smoking! A smoking miracle? Yes, it's the triple miracle of mint. (1) Your mouth doesn't get smoke-weary! (2) Your throat doesn't get that harsh, hacking feeling! (3) Your breath avoids tobacco-taint! Get Juleps today - get more joy out of smoking!"
1942 - Philip Morris: "Inhaling need not mean throat-irritation for you".
1942 - The FTC accused Penn Tobacco Company of misrepresenting the Julep Cigarettes with promotional phrases like "Remember Juleps, forget your cough" and from the use of the words "forget your cough" implying the cigarette was a treatment or remedy for coughs.
1946 - RJ Reynolds runs an advert in Life Magazine "More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Cigarette".
1949 - "Not one case of throat irritation due to smoking Camels!".
1950 - Chesterfields: "A responsible consulting organization reports a study by a competent medical specialist and staff on the effects of smoking Chesterfields… "It is my opinion that the ears, nose, throat and accessory organs of all participating subjects examined by me were not adversely affected in the six-month period by smoking the cigarettes provided."
1950 - The US Federal Trade Commission declares RJRs' adverts to be false and deceptive. For example, claims that smoking Camels "renews and restores bodily energy" were "clearly false and deceptive, there being in tobacco smoke no constituent which could possible create energy".
1955 - "It's a psychological fact: Pleasure helps your disposition. And for more pleasure - have a Camel!"
1965 - A "strictly confidential" report by two scientists Francis Roe and M C Pike states: "Advertising aims to do precisely the opposite from that which we suggest parents, doctors and teachers should be doing…".
1978 - BAT executives attend a five day conference on marketing. "As advertising bans tend to fall unevenly on countries within regions, companies should explore the opportunities to co-operate with one another by beaming TV and radio advertising into a banned country".
1978 - B&W discuss pulling out of the practice of placing cigarettes in movies because, in part, "the use of any cigarette by a movie hero advertises all cigarettes. So let the competitors help advertise our brands in this way".
1988 - Lotus team manager, Peter Warr, talks about the effect of RJR's investment in the Lotus Formula One team: "The Brazilian market was a small one for Camel but since the Brazilian Grand Prix its sales have increased by 84 per cent".
