The Joe Camel ads and the Hard Pack certainly appealed to kids - as they were undoubtedly intended to. Only a naive individual would be taken in by the disingenuous efforts of R.J.Reynolds to convince the public that they had no such idea in mind. But, the advertisers also wished to appeal to adolescents and adults. And how! In
this ad you will find one of the standard Camel variations on the theme
of embedded sex. The key lettering of the word SEX is embedded in this
ad. Check out the smoke on an original copy of the ad and you will see
that the letter S overlaps an X. This combination of features could
of course, happen by chance, but not as often as one sees |
For Believers Only Would
the associations, for example, kick out the agencies working for
the tobacco companies? Will they do anything other than meekly censure
them after reading these pages? Will the UK Advertising Standards
Association and other professional associations in any of the countries
noted in these web pages boycott those agencies who consistently
and I think the answers are self evident. Only the consumer and their elected representatives have the power to bring the ad agencies and their client companies into line - and prevent the tobacco companies from attempting to 'brainwash' young kids and adolescents. See Ads from the Archives for the stance adopted by theAmerican Association of Advertising Agencies a decade or so ago. The Association refuted claims about 'subliminal' advertising in a number of sophisticated ads that succeeded in both patronizing and conning American consumers. By incorporating the type of embedded images in their own ads the AAAA demonstrated that, whilst overtly ridiculing their critics and consumers who recognized that 'subliminal' ads were in use, their member agencies knew they could 'pull the wool' over the average American consumer any day.
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Brainchildren or Sons of Reg
But, admittedly, there is nothing definitive that would lead one to conclude they were intended for children. On occasions the words or phrases are somewhat trendy - the word squillions did make it into the terminology of trendy late teens and young adults in the late 1990's. However, even although it could be argued that most of these lines were written with adults in mind, it is much more likely that they originated in brainstorming sessions among 'creative' advertising personnel only too aware that their client tobacco companies need to catch their customers young. Cartoon
type characters such as Regal's Reg were banned
in the UK some years ago because of their obvious appeal to underage
and unsophisticated smokers. There
would be extreme concern if UK companies made any overt attempts
to 'import' Most
cheap brands make use of similar devices, Given
that the tobacco industry is a dying trade - and there is a continual
need to replace onetime customers with new addicts - one might reasonably
assume that the primary audience for such ads is not in fact adults
but underage smokers. The reasoning behind the childish humour evident
in Lambert & Butler ads, the adolescent language spinning the
economic benefits of Mayfair, and the visual puns in For Adults Only! Don't make me laugh.
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Would you be interested in supporting the development of a web site focussing specifically on cigarette advertising, smoking behaviour, nicotine addiction and related information? In particular would you like to help encourage youngsters to develop a healthy scepticism about advertising practices associated with cigarette advertising and promotion? If you can offer either financial assistance to develop such a site or have material available that could be of use on such a site, the author would be pleased if you would contact him. |
Last Revised: 3rd January, 2003 |