If Reynolds ever branch into the tea market, I've got the perfect slogan: One hump or two? ;-)

You might find the piece below useful - it's an article about how RJ Reynolds conducts Camel's advertising campaigns and what they seek to achieve.

R.J. Reynolds advertising campaigns
for Camel Cigarettes
by Tara Mulholland
In the eyes of today's All-American teenagers and children, what is the most important concern to them? Of course, to fit in with the crowd and look cool" to their peers. For the past several decades a central way of looking "cool" to kids is smoking cigarettes. They perhaps feel by smoking, they will look grown-up, sexy, and tough like the actors do in a movie or a model in an advertisement...people they look up to. Or perhaps the kids and teens are rebelling against their parents, and smoking is a way to attract attention to them. In any case, the fact is that kids and teens are smoking now more than ever. "In the United States alone, there are about five million teenage smokers and each of them smoke about 0.6 pack per day equaling about 1.1 billion packs of cigarettes a year"1. Where are youth getting the idea that smoking looks cool?

Perhaps it is due to an ad campaign that was exploited over every magazine, billboard, T-shirt, hat and lighter in the US beginning in 1985. This was the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company's controversial campaign featuring a cartoon character named, "Joe Cool Camel" for Camel Cigarettes. Critics claim that the advertising company, Mezzina/Brown, New York came up with this strategy to directly target kids and teens, especially one's under the age of 18, by using a child-like image of a "cool" cartoon character who likes smoking cigarettes2. This strategy worked because kids and teens look up to Joe Camel for his glamorous image, a lifestyle they would like to be experiencing, but can't as a young adult. This targeting strategy also worked because kids can relate better to a cartoon character than an actual human being. And if the cartoon is symbolizing that smoking is cool, than the kids will follow.

In each ad, Joe Camel is seen as slick, self-confident, and most of all, "cool" while smoking his tasteful cigarette. For example, in one ad Joe Camel is displayed in front of two flying aircraft's while dressed in pilot gear, smoking a cigarette. A beautiful blond is placed behind Joe dressed in tight apparel, adoring him from afar. The title of the ad distinctly captures the intentions of R.J. Reynolds by promoting Joe Cool to teens as a Smooth Character. This particular ad accomplishes the goal of targeting teens because it displays a young-like cartoon character portraying a tough guy image with a gorgeous woman by his side. Teens look up to figures that resemble a hero and if their "hero" is smoking, than it gives them more of an incentive to do so.

A powerfully thematic ad that stands out in my mind is when Joe Cool Camel is placed on a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Joe is dressed head to toe in biker gear wearing a traditional motorcycle jacket, T-shirt, jeans and black sunglasses. While posing in this tough guy gear, Joe is sitting on the bike smoking a slick cigarette for pure rebellious enjoyment, symbolizing the epitome of a bad boy image. This ad is strategically enduring to teens in that again, they look up to icons that look tough, self-confident, and rebellious because they want to be what that image represents. Camel Cigarettes target this insecurity of teens and in the process they reel them in to smoke cigarettes.

Rock and Roll music is most popular among the teenage group. They admire bands for their rough image, style and music. R.J. Reynolds focuses on this phenomenon by creating an ad where Joe Camel features as a rock star. He is place on stage in the spotlight, smoking a cigarette while playing the guitar. The fans are faded in the background, cheering this stud-camel on for his great music. This ad is appealing to the teenage audience because it displays Joe Camel as an icon, a role model that fans adore from their assigned seats at a concert hall. When teens observe this ad, perhaps they will think if the image of Joe Camel looks cool smoking on stage, than they will look cool if they do it too.

As these ads became more and more popular with kids and teens, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) became anxious and started to seek an outright ban against this campaign. They felt that the ads were indeed targeting children and teens to smoke by using a "cool" cartoon character to pull them in for the bate. After a long drawn out process, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company lost their court case to FTC, banning the ten-year old, Joe Cool Camel campaign. In reality, FTC was right. Statistics show that "91% of six-year olds match Joe Camel with a picture of a cigarette, making him as well-known as Mickey Mouse. Not to mention that with increase of awareness, Camel's share of under-18 Market soared from 0.5% to 32.8% in the first two years of the Joe Camel campaign, representing a $476 million increase in annual sales for R.J. Reynolds. Making it so that since the first introduction of Joe Camel, the number of children who smoke increased by a factor of 50"3.

Spectators were worried that with the publicity of Joe Camel being banned for targeting under age smokers, it would increase the amount of teens smoking just for the sake of rebelling. A spokesperson from R.J. Reynolds agreed by saying, "Extensive coverage of the Joe Camel controversy has circulated nationally to school children, had boosted awareness of the brand among that age group and influenced the recognition figures"4. To FTC's disadvantage, the issue of banning Joe Camel was working in the opposite direction of what they wanted.

With the Joe Camel ad campaign being destroyed, R.J. Reynolds showed their first act of good faith by thinking of a new strategy to appeal to "older" smokers. Critics believed that they were now trying to encourage those 18 to 21 to smoke5. Despite this political controversy, Camel continued to promote its alternate ad campaign entitled, "What are you looking for." This tagline features in the right-hand corner of the print next to a small pack of cigarettes, promoting a subtle advertisement without too much emphasis on the camel. With the absence of the Joe Camel cartoon, R.J. Reynolds experimented with a new technique in ads using subliminal messages to symbolize the figure of the previous Joe Camel.

The first execution, made again by Mezzina/Brown, New York was an ad featuring a beautiful woman, laid back, exhaling a cloud of smoke in the shape of a camel. In a second ad, a glamorous, sophisticated woman is sitting at a bar, but to our surprise she is not smoking. Instead she lifts up her cocktail drink to reveal the image of a camel in a ring of condensation. A third ad displays a rugged man in jeans with a frayed area enhancing the image of a camel outline. A final ad portrays camel-shaped smoke wafting up from a cigarette tucked in the strings of a guitar. This non-cartoonish camel outline is still a powerful symbol for the brand. The ads display a sexy tone with the smoke lingering in the air. With this portrayal, they are less slick and more sophisticated than the previous cartoon ads. The theme "What are you looking for" also takes more of a selling quality than just displaying Joe Cool Camel and his pals"6. Perhaps these prints focus on situations and hobbies that kids and teens in today's society are interested in to target them to smoke, whether it be a beautiful woman, drinking, or playing the guitar.

More recently, R.J. Reynolds has taken Camel's, "What are you looking for" slogan even further by invoking "accidental," but hidden figures of a camel in each of their new ads. The tagline has been changed once again to a new vibrant slogan, "Mighty tasty!" These ads consist of a more comedic, smart-alecky tone as if they are rebelling against society and Media. Vice President of Marketing at RJR commented on their new campaign by saying, "It's a spoof of advertising itself, as well as social clichés, scandals, and myths."7

In these new ads there are several self-mockery references to authorities, symbolizing how the ads were suppose to be viewed by people of twenty-one-years of age or older. The mockery reads, "Viewer Discretion Advised." For example, in one print ad, it shows a good-looking, half dressed man running from a run-down farm house, while a "grungy" old man is pointing a shotgun at his back. The devious daughter is lying in bed, peering out the window with a cigarette in her mouth; perhaps symbolizing that she just had sex with the handsome man. Meanwhile, a subtle, petite camel is hung on the window curtain. The caption in the right-hand corner reads, "Viewer Discretion Advised. This ad contains SS. Satisfied Smoking. FV. Farm Violence. AN. Animal Nudity."

The second execution takes the same approach. It portrays a beautiful, bored-looking maid and butler standing in a fancy kitchen while their employers are anticipating their presence in the dinning room. The maid is mischievously tapping her cigarette ashes in the pan she is to serve to the uptight group. The warning label in the corner reads, "This ad contains IR. Idle Rich. ABR. Abusive Bell Ringing. PA. Premeditated Ashing." The camel is subliminally hidden in the maid's headpiece.

The third ad takes a different approach by displaying only a pack of Camel Cigarettes. Attached to the pack are subheadings that portray self-mockery to the media and how they have damaged Camel Cigarettes' reputation. For instance, near the brand's logo it reads, "Originally called 'Goat' Cigarettes, but research showed the name to be unappealing." Another read, "Viewer Discretion Advised: Subliminal Imagery," takes aim at the often repeated charge that drawings of former spokescartoon Joe Camel contained subliminal images of a penis, even though the creator of Joe Camel never intended to do so. Pointing to the stylized Camel on the pack, the burst reads: "when viewed under magnifying glass, camel on pack mysteriously appears larger."8

In viewing the most recent ads that R.J. Reynolds has promoted, it seems that the brand is still trying to target a young audience. They created this slogan by using sly, rebellious, playful images of young models. For example, the ad where handsome guy is fleeing from a girl's house half-dressed with a gun down his back. This symbolizes rebellion in which kids and teens appeal to. Perhaps R.J. Reynolds is not providing as good of deed as regulators had anticipated. Now being in the age group of twenty-one-year olds, it is our generation's mission to not fall into the influence of Camel Cigarette ads. Will it work?




--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2002-08-29 17:33:55 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

e-rich: no need to get the hump ;-)