Old Cigarette Advertisement
Remember the old cigarette advertisements of Joe Camel leaning against a wooden fence in the high plains with a horse nearby, smoking on a Camel cigarette? If you do, you probably remember that Joe Camel made that cigarette look so good, and so appealing, and exactly what he deserved after a long hard day working the glamorous plains as a cow rearing camel with a large Stetson perched atop his head.

Joe Camel was a way of life when it came to those old cigarette advertisements. He was an American icon, nearly as recognizable as Mickey Mouse himself; that fact frightens most parents a bit more than any number or statistic that could be shown to them. These were the old Camel cigarette ads; these days things are much more toned down and cigarette commercials are not shown on television. Rarely, one might come across a Virginia Slims print ad in a ladies journal in the supermarket aisle, but very rarely are cigarette ads ever found anywhere that a child can encounter them. This is for a reason.

Legislation has now been passed that puts a great deal of restriction on the ways that the big tobacco companies can advertise for their cigarettes. Truth be told, cigarettes do not require much advertising. People already smoke in droves, and the industry need not concern itself with finding new converts to smoking as human beings take care of that for them each and every day. What they are worried about is competition amongst themselves, so when they do advertise they don’t take the same routes that old cigarette advertisements used to take.

This time, what the cigarette advertisements go for is making the appeal of their cigarette appear to be greater than that of the competitor. Virginia Slim markets their product in a long, ladylike version which is perfect for a woman on the go. They smoke quickly as well, making it a perfect object for a campaign for Virginia Slim cigarettes targeted directly at women. They are slimmer, smoother, cooler, or they taste better perhaps; there are a variety of things that people look for in a cigarette and these things do vary from person to person as individual tastes vary.

Old cigarette advertisements have ceased and Joe Camel isn’t a household name to this new generation, and that is one accomplishment in the crusade against smoking and tobacco and the cigarette advertisements role in this epidemic.