Other Slimy Tactics

Joe Camel: As if a real camel would smoke

Maybe you’ve heard of Joe Camel. Maybe you’ve even seen pictures of him. Joe was outlawed because his friendly cartoon personality encouraged kids to think of smoking as fun.

These days, R.J. Reynolds, the company that created Joe Camel, has come up with a brand new way to tempt young smokers. They say their “exotic line” featuring flavors like “Blackjack Gin” and “SnakeEyes Scotch” is targeted at young adults, ages 18-20. But research shows younger teens are most drawn to flavored cigarettes. After age 20, the taste for “sweet” cigarettes fades.

Sponsoring youthful events = not cool.

In 1998 the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company, makers of Kool cigarettes, launched a very popular promotion called “Kool MIXX.” They called it a celebration of hip-hop music and culture. It featured a hip-hop DJ “mixing” competition with a $10,000 cash prize, a “House of Menthol” Website that provided live footage of the DJ competition, “Mixx Stick” radios, a “Kool Mixx” CD ROM that included mixing software and music files and “special edition” Kool cigarette packs with pictures of young rappers, disc jockeys and dancers. While Brown & Williamson denied targeting youth, the campaign was very popular. In 2004, the “Kool MIXX” campaign ended when the courts finally ruled that it violated the tobacco settlement  by clearly targeting young people. Basically, Kool got busted for being totally unKool.

Click here to read more about how Brown & Williamson used music marketing to sell cigarettes.