The U.S. marketing team of R. J. Reynolds, looking for an idea to promote Camel’s 75th anniversary, re discovered Joe in the company’s archives in the late 1980s.

Quoted from The New York Times

Joe Camel was actually born in Europe. The caricatured camel was created in 1974 by a British artist, Billy Coulton, for a French advertising campaign that subsequently ran in other countries in the 1970s. Indeed, Mr. O’Toole recalled a visit to France many years ago during which he glimpsed Joe Camel wearing a Foreign Legion cap. The inspiration behind Mr. Price’s cartoon was the camel, named Old Joe, that has appeared on all Camel packages since the brand’s initial appearance in 1913. 1

Joe Camel first appeared in the U.S in 1988, in materials created for the 75th anniversary of the Camel brand by Trone Advertising. Trone is a mid size agency in Greensboro, N.C., that Reynolds used on various advertising and promotional projects.

Physical appearance edit

The character lacked many camel traits. Feet were always to be covered, in footwear consistent with the rest of the outfit. The character also lacked a tail or hump. 2 Advertising presented Joe Camel in a variety of «fun and entertaining, contemporary and fresh» situations, wearing «bold and bright» colors, blue and yellow where appropriate. His face remained the same in different advertising pieces, and images of his hands only used when necessary. 2

Controversy edit

In 1991, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study showing that by age six nearly as many children could correctly respond that «Joe Camel» was associated with cigarettes as could respond that the Disney Channel logo was associated with Mickey Mouse, and alleged that the «Joe Camel» campaign was targeting children, 3 despite R. J. Reynolds’ contention that the campaign had been researched only among adults and was directed only at the smokers of other brands. At that time it was also estimated that 32.8% of all cigarettes sold illegally to underage buyers were Camels, up from less than one percent. 4 Subsequently, the American Medical Association asked R. J. Reynolds Nabisco to pull the campaign. R. J. Reynolds refused, and the Joe Camel Campaign continued. In 1991, Janet Mangini, a San Francisco based attorney, brought a suit against R. J. Reynolds, challenging the company for targeting minors with its «Joe Camel» advertising campaign. In her complaint, Mangini alleged that teenage smokers accounted for US$476 million of Camel cigarette sales in 1992. When the Joe Camel advertisements started in 1988, that figure was only at US$6 million, «implicitly suggesting such advertisements have harmed a great many teenagers by luring them into extended use of and addiction to tobacco products.» 5

R. J. Reynolds has denied Joe Camel was intended to be directed at children the company maintains that Joe Camel’s target audience was 25 49 year old males and current Marlboro smokers. In response to the criticism, R. J. Reynolds instituted «Let’s Clear the Air on Smoking», a campaign of full page magazine advertisements consisting entirely of text, typically set in large type, denying those charges, and declaring that smoking is «an adult custom».

Internal documents produced to the court in Mangini v. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, San Francisco County Superior Court No. 959516, demonstrated the industry’s interest in targeting children as future smokers. 6 The importance of the youth market was illustrated in a 1974 presentation by RJR’s Vice President of Marketing who explained that the «young adult market . . . represent s tomorrow’s cigarette business. As this 14 24 age group matures, they will account for a key share of the total cigarette volume for at least the next 25 years.» 7 A 1974 memo by the R. J. Reynolds Research Department points out that capturing the young adult market is vital because «virtually all smokers start by the age of 25» and «most smokers begin smoking regularly and select a usual brand at or before the age of 18.» 8

In July 1997, under pressure from the impending Mangini trial, Congress, and various public interest groups, RJR announced it would settle out of court and voluntarily end its Joe Camel campaign. A new campaign with a more adult theme debuted instead of Joe Camel, it had a plain image of a quadrupedal, non anthropomorphic camel. This image is still used in advertisements for Camel today. As part of the agreement, RJR also paid $10 million to San Francisco and the other California cities and counties who intervened in the Mangini litigation. This money was earmarked primarily to fund anti smoking efforts targeted at youth. 6

References edit

France, land of gauloises, eyes ‘no-brand’ cigarettes

PARIS (Reuters) France is considering a move to brandless packets to curb smoking, instituting one of the world&#39 s toughest anti tobacco policies in the home of chain smoking singer Serge Gainsbourg and no filter Gauloises cigarettes.

Health Minister Marisol Touraine is due to present a law next month that would stop cigarette manufacturers from printing their distinctive logos on packages, Le Figaro newspaper reported on Friday.

Plain packaging, with the cigarette brand written in small lettering under a graphic health warning, would be among a raft of radical measures to curb smoking, including a ban on using e cigarettes, or «vaping», in public places, Le Figaro said.

Australia pioneered plain packaging for cigarettes in 2012 and Britain, New Zealand and Ireland all plan similar bans.

In a statement, France&#39 s Health Ministry said it was studying several options to curb smoking.

«We are far from the point of taking any decisions and no particular course of action has been determined so far,» the ministry said.

With its cafe culture and chain smoking Nouvelle Vague movie stars, France earned a reputation as a smokers&#39 paradise after World War Two. Iconic dark tobacco brands like Gitanes, favored by Gainsbourg, who smoked up to five packs a day, and Gauloises, preferred by philosopher Jean Paul Sartre, grew hugely popular, in part thanks to their stylish packaging.

While the reputation sticks, smoking rates in France have since plummeted. Less than a third of the population now lights up regularly, which is about average for the European Union and down sharply from nearly 60 percent in the 1960s.

Tough anti tobacco laws were introduced in 1991 which banned smoking in public places, forced cigarette manufacturers to display health warnings on packets and forbade large scale advertising on billboards and TV.

Advocates of plain packaging argue that stripping packets of eye catching logos is effective in reducing smoking among young people. Currently, one in three French people aged 15 to 19 is a smoker, according to the Health Ministry.

As French smoking rates have declined, so has the country&#39 s once vibrant tobacco industry. The state owned Seita brand that produced Gauloises and Gitanes was bought by Britain&#39 s Imperial Tobacco in 2008, and much of its production moved abroad.

In April, Imperial Tobacco announced the closure of the largest Gauloise cigarette factory in France, prompting the factory&#39 s 327 workers to go on strike and hold five managers hostage on the worksite, near Nantes, this week.

The managers were released on Thursday after a day of captivity.

(Reporting by Nicholas Vinocur Editing by Catherine Evans)