Many memorable marketing campaigns promoted tobacco use. Many of these campaigns date back to the 1920s and saw many radio and print ads released. Others come from the 1960s, during the era when manufacturers could promote their products on television. Let’s look at some of the iconic ones. 

I’d Walk a Mile for a Camel 

R.J. Reynolds introduced their “I’d Walk a Mile for a Camel” campaign in 1921. Legend says the campaign started when a professional golfer asked a spectator for a Camel cigarette by saying he would walk a mile for one. The advertising manager spectator latched onto the slogan, and the company used it regularly for more than 30 years. R.J. Reynolds continued to use the slogan periodically into the 1970s. This long-lasting campaign was also the first to show women smoking in advertising.  

Reach for a Lucky Cigarette Instead of a Sweet 

In the late 1800s, people started recognizing the dangers of smoking, as evidenced by the coinage of the term coffin nails in 1888 and smoker’s cough in 1898. Therefore, the American Tobacco Company introduced the idea of mainly women smoking their cigarettes to stay slim. At the time this campaign was introduced in 1928, smokers were male, so it was also an important tool to attract women to the smoking habit. The advertising was highly effective as sales of Lucky Strike cigarettes went up over 300% during the first year, and the company became the leading brand of cigarettes.  

Marlboro Man 

While the 1920s were all about encouraging women to smoke, by the 1950s, cigarette manufacturers, like Phillip Morris, needed to encourage more men to smoke, therefore, they introduced the masculine Marlboro Man to American audiences. The first campaigns were a way to introduce male smokers to filtered cigarettes as the company sold the idea that they were less likely to cause lung cancer. The first ads appealed to men and women because they embraced individualism, a concept many young people were embracing at the time. Phillip Morris often required the man playing the Marlboro Man to smoke up to five packs of cigarettes during filming because they wanted to capture the ashes falling in a particular way.   

Joe Camel 

One of the last iconic characters used to promote tobacco smoking was Joe Camel, which was first introduced on the company’s 75th birthday. This campaign featuring a cartoon camel faced continuous criticism from some groups for promoting smoking to children. The company’s intent was to encourage more young people to start smoking.  

From encouraging women to smoke to stay thin to making smoking more attractive to young people, each of these campaigns was carefully crafted to introduce a new segment of the population to smoking. If you are an advertising executive, consider how you can expand your target audience through your advertising. Realize that the iconic ads often bring criticism while creating a memory in the buyer’s mind. Once you find the right message, do not be afraid to adapt it over many years to continue to promote your product.

Published by: Nelly Chavez