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It’s a Whole New World:
The Past and Present of Camel Cigarettes Many corporations in America do not have the capability to stay afloat in the marketing world. The consumers of America demand far too much of a product and that is something that some of those corporations just can’t offer. However, the ones that do remain must, as Thomas Frank author of “Commodify Your Dissent” says, constantly redefine the product that they are trying to advertise. Camel cigarettes are no different. The corporation that is Camel proves Frank’s point that, “the countercultural idea has become capitalist orthodoxy, its hunger for transgression upon transgression now perfectly suited to an economical-cultural regime that runs on ever-faster cyclings of the new” (165). It is no longer an issue of how well an advertisement can influence its consumers. Where the greater challenge lies is, if that corporation can continually give its audience what it desires. It is a whole new world, and corporations must constantly modify their approaches on their products to be successful. Not only must they modify their products, but they must also create ads that will make their product memorable to the consumer or they will inevitably fail and become a part of marketing history. Camel cigarettes are a long-standing brand that has been around for almost a century. Throughout the 20th Century, Camel periodically adjusted their advertising methodology. Especially in the 1980s, Camel advertisements were predominantly filled with white males who were middle-aged with blonde hair and a mustache and who were the focal points of the ads. The mustache particularly personified masculinity, ruggedness, and what a ‘man’ should have. Their slogan during that time was, “It’s a Whole New World”. Surprisingly, in this ‘world’, there seemed to be very few women in their advertisements. This was not the way that the ads were created in past decades. In fact, Camel stopped marketing their cigarettes to women altogether. Camel wanted to pursue the idea that smoking cigarettes could be adventurous. To that end, they often showed men doing things like rafting, or relaxing outdoors near a river, in their ads. They also tried to portray smoking their cigarettes as an opportunity to attain some male bonding. The strategies that Camel had used during the 80’s are what Steve Craig, author of “Men’s Men and Women’s Women”, would call a “men’s men” advertisement. In his essay, Craig discusses how a selected commercial had the same qualities that the 1980s Camel ads possessed. He states, “The escapism and male camaraderie promised in this commercial are simply an extension of the escapism and camaraderie men enjoy when they watch (and vicariously participate in) weekend sports on television” (Craig 205). In that commercial, Craig is referring to the focal point of the commercial, which was a young, white, blond man. Also in that commercial, there was a serious lack of women and the one woman that was present in it, was depicted as a mere object that the other men in the commercial simply gawked over. However, Craig did make a valid point. He said that the escapism and male camaraderie that was shown in that commercial was something that men enjoyed viewing. It seemed that men were enthralled by the way they were depicted in commercials. With the commercial they almost found a sense of identity, a way to live their lives. Identity is a central component of Anne Norton’s essay “Signs of Shopping”. Norton discusses in her work how, when people are shopping via catalogue or mall, they are not shopping just for clothing but more so to “help construct a sense of identity” (Norton 101). Granted, Norton was referring to shopping in her essay and in this paper, advertising is the main topic. Still, the same dependency that people had on shopping in Norton’s essay is tantamount to the dependency that people have on commercials. They allow commercials to curb how they will live and function in America. The marketing world is awfully aware of this, which is the reason why the corporations are so adamant in changing aspects of their advertisements, if need be. James B. Twitchell, author of the essay “What We Are to Advertisers”, says it best, “The task of advertising is to convince different sets of consumers ----target groups---- that the quarter they observe is somehow different in meaning and value than the same quarter seen by their across-the-tracks neighbors”(Twitchell 193). Without that consumers desire for their product, that “quarter”, the brands and corporations are nothing. Camel cigarettes are no exception to that principle property of the advertising world. At the tail-end of the 1980s, the whole white male with blond hair and a mustache image disappeared. The new spokesperson for Camel cigarettes became none other than Joe Camel, a cartoon camel who is smooth, friendly, and womanizing. Joe Camel is virtually a chameleon in any element he’s in. Camel decided that the whole white male image was beginning to become obsolete. With Joe Camel, it could appeal to more than just the “men’s men” demographic, which could subsequently get Camel more consumers. Besides his personality, Joe Camel just had a swagger that many people liked. Unfortunately for Camel cigarettes, an anti-tobacco campaign complained that Joe Camel appealed to children and that obviously had to be altered immediately. If Camel cigarettes would have kept Joe Camel as their spokesperson, they would have probably had a high number of lawsuits filed against them. Camel had to make the difficult decision of discontinuing the cartoon icon. After Joe Camel was outlawed in 1997, Camel started subliminally showing an image of a camel logo in their ads with a provocative young brunette. One of their new slogans became, “What are you looking for?” This marketing scheme wasn’t as effective as Joe Camel, but it would suffice. With the new millennium approaching, Camel began showing ads that had a bit of humor in them. The ads would typically present “white-trash” in a comical manner. It was a relief after the Joe Camel saga. Camel wanted to go into the new millennium subtly and pleasantly. During the first years of the new millennium, Camel advertisements possessed no humor. There weren’t any photographs of men rafting or fishing at a lake. The Camel ads were simple portraits of 1950’s subjects. They had also introduced women again presenting them in a mature, inviting demeanor. Flavored cigarettes had also become a fad in the early years of the new millennium. Though Camel has lasted longer than three decades, between the 1980s to the new millennium, one can see how the marketing methods Camel had exercised changed, according to their consumers’ desire. I believe it’s a safe bet to assume the anti-tobacco campaign that virtually ended Joe Camel’s “fifteen minutes of fame”, were not people that bought Camel cigarettes or any product that had tobacco in it. Though they weren’t consumers of Camel cigarettes they were people that wanted to see a change in the way Camel cigarettes advertised their products. R. J Reynolds, the founder of Camel cigarettes, had to change his marketing scheme or he would obviously lose more money in the long run. The bizarre thing about the anti-tobacco campaign’s complaint was that Joe Camel was the reason why many adolescents began smoking and continued, where statistics show quite the contrary, according to Jacob Sullum, a senior editor at Reason Magazine, “Smoking among teen-agers actually dropped during the first five years of the campaign, beginning only to rise in 1993” he goes further and states that, “According to data from the Monitoring the Future Project at the University of Michigan, the share of high school seniors who had smoked daily in the previous month fell from 18.7 percent in 1987 to 17.2 percent in 1992. In the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, the share of 12- to 17-year-olds who had smoked cigarettes at all in the previous month fell from 22.7 percent in 1988 to 18.4 percent in 1992” (Sullum). But of course, these statistics would not curb the thinking of anti-tobacco activists of blaming Joe Camel for why their children started smoking. Yet, the blame must go on to the corporations and brands for conditioning people to do things. It seems to me that Americans cannot take fault for many situations that happen in their lives. In my opinion, Camel cigarettes and many other companies and corporations reveal broader elements of the American society and identity. Not only Americans, but people around the world want to have something to emulate, something that will show them the way to success. These corporations understand that desire, for they are comprised of people too, though it is hard for some to believe at times. From the 1980s ads, the Joe Camel ads, and the new millennium ads with their memorable portrayals of the 1950s, these ads became things that people want to emulate, because businesses skillfully stage these images in such ways that it is sometimes hard to disregard them. That total disregard, however, is not impossible. The history of the human condition cannot suppress mankind of the present. We are all capable of evolving into well-rounded and well-aware individuals and thusly not allowing greedy corporations to define who we are or how we will live our lives. Camel was right about one thing though, with there catchy 1980s slogan, “It’s a Whole New World”. It is a whole new world, but the people of this world, if willing, have the capability of making a wonderful new world.

Bibliography

"Cigarette Advertising Methodologies." Indy Speedway Visitor's Guide and Racing Information. Ed. Dan Vielhaber. Dec. 1996. Web. 11 Mar. 2010. .
Craig, Steve. "Men's Men and Women's Women." Signs of Life in the USA 6e + I-cite. 6th ed. Boston, New York: Bedford/st Martins, 2008. 202-12. Print.
Frank, Thomas. "Commodify Your Dissent." Signs of Life in the USA 6e + I-cite. 6th ed. Boston, New York: Bedford/st Martins, 2008. 163-67. Print.
Norton, Anne. "The Signs of Shopping." Signs of Life in the USA 6e + I-cite. 6th ed. Boston, New York: Bedford/st Martins, 2008. 101-06. Print.
Sullum, Jacob. "Joe Camel Finally Gets Railroaded out of Town." Reason Magazine. 17 July 1997. Web. 2 Mar. 2010. .
Twitchell, James B. "What We Are to Advertisers." Signs of Life in the USA 6e + I-cite. 6th ed. Boston, New York: Bedford/st Martins, 2008. 192-96. Print.