Relax With a Camel
We all at one point have
followed a trend or have
succumbed to the pressures of
following a trend. Trends come and
go, as well as methods on how to advertise products to different groups of people. Either
the ad campaigns change their techniques of advertising to people, or change their product
to follow the latest trend. It is not exact on if advertising company’s begin trends, or if they
follow them, but one thing is certain—their techniques work. Clotaire Rapaille, a
marketing specialist, states in an interview that “we [as] Americans, we like to have
choices: My own life, I want to become whatever I am; whatever it is doesn’t matter, but I
want to become myself—not something else, not what people tell me” and that is true, even
some companies have noticed so that could be a reason why they come up with different
products to suit our needs. In addition to making us different they also make us the alike by
selling us the same products as everyone else. But yet we at times believe that we need
something because of the way that it is advertised to us and we go out and buy it even
though we might not need it. Take a look at Camel cigarettes as an example.
Men have been the focus in the ads throughout the
decades. If we go to the nineteen thirties we can see that
they used men in sports as a way to advertise the
cigarettes as a stimulant proclaiming that they gave them
energy. If we go one decade ahead into the nineteen
forties we see the Camel cigarette ads had begun to get
patriotic during World War II. The way they advertised the cigarettes then, is by proclaiming
that the marines, navy and army men preferred Camel cigarettes. You would want to support
your country, wouldn’t you? While America was entering World War II the ads switched its
theme to patriotism. They began to tell a story of families sending their sons, fathers, and even
husbands packs of Camel cigarettes as a way to show that they supported them during the war.
In one ad it said “It’s the most welcome gift you can send
him…a carton of Camels- the soldier’s favorite”.
Soldiers smiling, soldiers reading, they had received a
letter and a pack of Camel Cigarettes. It was a good
technique used by the company to advertise their product
according to what was going on in the world as well as suggesting that they made the soldiers
happy. In the nineteen fifties they began to use actors to promote Camel cigarettes. Some of the
men in these ads included Robert Young, Rick Hudson,
Tony Curtis, and Phil Silvers. John Wayne and Brian Keith whom
also starred in Camel ads later died from lung and stomach cancer,
and emphysema. In the seventies the “Camel Man” appears,
“Camels finally decides maybe it’s not the filter, as much as the
tough guy image. So they introduce their own ‘Camel Man’. In every ad, a different woman
is staring at him.” Sadly the “Camel Man” didn’t stick around for too long and in the early
nineteen eighties a new man appears and they cut out woman from the advertisements and a
new slogan appears “It’s a whole new world”, and “Where a Man Belongs”.
Although men have
been the focus in the Camel ads they
have faded in and out of them.
There has also been another person
that has contributed to the message
that the Camel’s cigarette ads have tried to express. When the men in the ads were the
biggest picture the reader could see, there has been an attractive woman in the back ground
to suggest that all eyes would be on the man that smokes a Camel cigarette. It would be
safe to say that he is a man who
loves Camel cigarettes, and who has all eyes
on him. “By the end of the decade [1920], Camel
is pursuing young female customers. They
suggest that in between their tea parties
and gold, classy rich women would appreciate
Camel Cigarettes.” Camel cigarettes began to
advertise women who showed class and
sophistication by putting drawings of charming
women.
Men and women are not the only targets of advertisements. Every ad campaign
tries new things so they can attract different audiences like trying to target younger people
to begin smoking at a younger age, or at least that’s how it’s interpreted.
Pediatricians had conducted a
survey with teens throughout four
years. According to John Bonifield a
CNN Medical Producer, “in [a] study,
girls were asked over the course of
several years, ‘What is the name of
the cigarette brand of your favorite cigarette advertisement?’ In 2004, 10 percent of girls
chose Camel as their favorite brand. In 2008, a year after R.J. Reynolds launched its new
campaign, nearly 22 percent of girls chose Camel as their favorite brand.” Although this ad
was “featured in popular women’s magazines like Glamour, Lucky and Vogue back in
2007”, some people believed that it was
targeting teenage girls because “the
cigarettes are featured right alongside a
beautiful dress, shoes, jewelry, and a
purse- the kinds of items that you might
expect teen girls to find glamorous and appealing.” Although it seems that the ad was
targeting teenage girls, “the company’s statement goes on to say, ‘Camel No. 9 was
developed in response to female adult smokers… who were asking for a product that better
reflected their taste preferences and style.’” In the late 1980’s Camel cigarettes tried a new
way to advertise their product, but was it a good move for the company? Some people
believed that their new tactic of using Camel Joe to advertise their cigarettes was a bad
move because it also appealed to younger children.
Giving energy, was what Camel cigarettes was saying that it gave people as well
as helping them get through the day. . The
ads began to feature people doing sports and being
active to prove their point. Later in the 1950’s they
began to say that they helped people relax. The
company came up with the slogan that was found in
every ad “No other cigarette so rich-tasting yet so
mild as camel”, and had their models lean back as to
show how relaxing smoking a camel would make you.
As decades came and went the focus of the ads changed drastically; from
advertising to men and making it a manly cigarette to making women the focus and having
them advertise the sophistication and class that a Camel cigarette gave a woman. What’s
really intriguing is the statement that the cigarettes would give a person energy and then a
decade later proclaim something totally different- that it was a downer and relaxed a person.
Surprisingly I found an article almost stating the exact same thing that an ad from the
1940’s stated, “Smokers often say that lighting up a cigarette can calm their nerves, satisfy
their cravings, and help them feel energized.” In a survey found in “The Psychology of
Everyday Living” by Ernest Dichter “there are several reasons why a person feels good
when smoking a cigarette, among one of them is the reeling of being relaxed.
It has nothing with a substance in the cigarette alone, it’s just stated that some people just
feel relaxed because it’s an effortless activity to just sit back and relax while they watch the
smoke be released from their nostrils or mouth.” According to GumAuctions.com it stated
that “for those born prior to the passage of the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act in
1970, there was an overwhelming amount of false information [such as] ads implied
smoking could make one more attractive or wealthy, advertisements promoted the health
benefits of smoking, physicians even touted
the health benefits of smoking, [and] family
and friends encouraging smoking.” There
are different reasons for teens though, “in
teens, peer pressure is generally the major
factor in starting to smoke. Anecdotes from friends or esteemed peers can counteract their
knowledge of the damage smoking can do. Some things teens thing about when deciding to
smoke are: it looks cool- an image perpetuated by cigarette use in pop culture, it will keep
you from eating and help you lose weight, cigarettes will help you think and make
homework easier, smoking helps you relax, [and] they don’t know anyone who has died
from smoking.”
Cigarette companies have been targeting many people to get them to buy their
product. In the book Brave New World Revisited it states “Hyde is a motivation analyst,
and his business is to study human weaknesses and failings, to investigate those
unconscious desires and fears by which so much of men’s conscious thinking and overt
doing is determined. And he does this, not in the spirit of the moralist who would
like to make people better, or of the physician who would like to improve their health, but
simply in order to find out the best way to take advantage of their ignorance and to exploit
their irrationality for the pecuniary benefit of his employers. But after all, it may be argued,
“capitalism is dead, consumerism is king”- and consumerism requires the service of expert
salesman versed in all the arts (including the more insidious arts) of persuasion” (278).
They get us hooked with the additives in the tobacco and makes us unable to stop smoking
and making it addictive. Although they have stated that they don’t target young children
they make it hard for is to see that because the ads have gave us results that they do and that
it’s working.
Works Cited
Bonifield, John. "Was It a Cigarette Ad
Campaign That Worked – on Teenagers? – The Chart CNN.com Blogs." The Chart - CNN.com Blogs. 15
Mar. 2010. Web. 27 Apr. 2011.
<http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/15/was-it-acigarette-ad-campaign-that-worked-onteenagers/?hpt=T2/>.
Dichter, Ernest. "Why Do We Smoke
Cigarettes." Smoking Sides. Web. 23 Apr. 2011.
<http://smokingsides.com/docs/whysmoke.html>.
Huxley, Aldous, and Aldous Huxley. "THE ART
OF SELLING." Brave New World: And, Brave New
World Revisited. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. 27786. Print.
Rapaille, Clotaire. "Frontline: "The
Persuaders"" Frontline: "The Persuaders" Television.
Unknown. "Camel Cigarette Advertising
1930s." Indy Motor Speedway. Web. 01 May 2011.
<http://indymotorspeedway.com/cigs/1930s.html>.
Unknown. "Why Do People Smoke
Cigarettes." Gum Auctions. Nicorette Gum. Web. 01
May 2011.
<http://www.gumauctions.com/article/155/Why-DoPeople-Smoke-Cigarettes/>.