However, all attempts to gloss and meet certain «elite» image nothing more than a publicity stunt, which was coined by the best experts on public relations. The thing is that these cigarettes are initially directed their attempts at advertising the fair sex. «Soft as the breeze in May,» in the 1920s, the tobacco industry products under the name «Marlboro» placed emphasis on the equality of men and women who follow fashion trends of emancipation. In the 1950s Philip Morris began to think about the need to change course. Not too popular brand tried to save his position, trying to avoid the disastrous results of actions of scientists. The thing is that at that time were released research data Luther Terry, under which he claimed a strong link smoking with lung cancer and chronic bronchitis. Such disclosure has long been feared all the tobacco corporations. And as it turned out, not without reason in connection with an introduction to such information in 1953 in the U.S. for the first time the history of cigarettes significantly decreased their consumption. Of course, thinking about the health of ordinary American citizens, no one was going. The fact that cigarettes cause great harm to health, the owners of tobacco factories and heard, without any research, but do we know a lot of businessmen who care about something besides the well being of themselves and their own family? So in this case, the actions were quite predictable. Tobacco companies immediately tried to refute this information, trying to convince Americans of the unreliability of research, and when such a move has not led to expected results, are recklessly accuse competitors in that they produce more harmful varieties. Of course, a large proportion of the charges were accounted for cigarettes, while products with the filter is completely harmless. At that time it was believed that these cigarettes exclusively female domain, because brand «Marlboro» in this case was left on the horse. However, due to the reduction in cigarette consumption in general, Philip Morris might well fail, but because he urgently needed to teach American males to think that smoking cigarettes without a filter is not shameful. From now on, ladies’ tobacco products were to become universal.

The media business: advertising; camel’s success and controversy — new york times

Indeed, a rival tobacco company is testing the popularity of a penguin in sunglasses to promote one of its brands.

The latest attacks on Joe Camel came yesterday in a special issue of the Journal of the American Medical Assocation devoted to the dangers of smoking. It savaged the character’s appeal to, and efficacy in reaching, children.

A coalition of health organizations, including the American Cancer Society, wasted no time in petitioning the Federal Trade Commission to ban the campaign, which the groups assailed as «one of the most egregious examples in recent history of tobacco advertising that targets children.»

Joe Camel was actually born in Europe. The caricatured camel was created in 1974 by a British artist, Nicholas Price, for a French advertising campaign that subsequently ran in other countries in the 1970’s. 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..

Joe Camel first appeared in this country in 1988, in materials created for the 75th anniversary of the Camel brand by Trone Advertising. Trone is a small agency in Greensboro, N.C., that Reynolds uses on various advertising and promotional projects.

The anniversary logo then appeared in Camel advertising, created by the brand’s main agency, McCann Erickson, New York, which carried the theme «75 years and still smokin’!» Based on positive consumer response to the character, and the success of the anniversary promotion, Joe Camel became the centerpiece of Camel’s advertising, with the addition of a slogan, «Smooth character.»

Among the most contentious aspects of Joe Camel’s appearance has been that nose. Reynolds has always said this protuberance is nothing more than an exaggerated rendering of a camel’s nose critics say it was drawn in a phallic fashion to suggest that smoking is a virile pursuit.

Reynolds has relied on Joe Camel to give the brand, the first nationally advertised cigarette, a more contemporary image among the crucially important segment of younger male smokers.

«The over 21 year old smoker is the most prized of all consumers,» said Roy Burry, a senior vice president of Kidder, Peabody & Company in New York who follows the tobacco industry. «A young smoker will stick with smoking longer than an older smoker, who dies or quits.»

The original, unfiltered Camel brand was once the most popular cigarette in America, thanks to memorable slogans like «I’d walk a mile for a Camel.» It went into a steep decline during the 1950’s as a result of a boom in filtered brands like Marlboro, made by Reynolds’s archrival, Philip Morris.

Though filtered Camels were introduced, their ever changing campaigns, utilizing a variety of male oriented imagery, never caught fire until Joe Camel walked in.

That is a singular accomplishment for two reasons First, as Emanuel Goldman, an industry analyst for Paine Webber Inc. in San Francisco, noted, «It’s very difficult to take the image of a product and flip it so quickly.»

The second reason is that in the full price segment of the $43 billion cigarette industry, which includes brands like Camel, sales are falling 5 percent to 8 percent a year. All the industry’s growth is in cheaper brands, which have now captured a record 25 percent of the market, said John C. Maxwell Jr., managing director of Wheat First Securities in Richmond.

Another sign of Joe Camel’s success is that the campaign has progressed even as Reynolds has changed agencies on the Camel account. McCann worked on Joe Camel ads through 1989, when the brand was moved to Young & Rubicam in New York. Y.& R. worked on the account until October, when Reynolds moved the most significant portion of the account to Mezzina/Brown Inc. in New York, an agency founded by two former top Y. & R. Camel account executives.