JOE CAMEL

'Joe Camel' (officially ''Old Joe'') was the advertising mascot for Camel cigarettes from late 1987 to July 12, 1997, appearing in magazine advertisements, billboards, and other print media.

Contents

History

Controversy

References

History

Joe Camel was conceived in the 1950s by Billy Coulton, art director in Long Island working on a T-shirt promotion for the brand in Europe. The R.J. Reynolds U.S. marketing team, looking for an idea to promote Camel's 75th anniversary, re-discovered Joe in the company's archives in the late 1980s. At that time, R.J. Reynolds' staff found that the Camel brand had a reputation as an "old-man's cigarette." The staff wanted a new campaign to make the brand more attractive to contemporary smokers.

Controversy

In 1991, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study^[1] showing that more children 5 and 6 years old could recognize Joe Camel than could recognize Mickey Mouse or Fred Flintstone, and alleged that the "Joe Camel" campaign was supposedly targeting children—despite R.J. Reynolds' contention that the campaign had been researched only among adults and was directed only at the smokers of other brands. At that time it was estimated that over 30% of all cigarettes sold in the U.S. were Marlboros. Subsequently, the American Medical Association asked R.J. Reynolds Nabisco to pull the campaign. R.J. Reynolds refused, and the Joe Camel Campaign continued. In 1991, Janet Mangini, a San Francisco-based attorney, brought a suit against R.J. Reynolds, challenging the company for targeting minors with its "Joe Camel" advertising campaign. In her complaint, Mangini alleged that teenage smokers accounted for $476 million
of Camel cigarette sales in 1992. When the Joe Camel advertisements started in 1988, that figure was only at $6 million, "implicitly suggesting such
advertisements have harmed a great many teenagers by luring them into
extended use of and addiction to tobacco products."^[2]
R.J. Reynolds to this day has denied Joe Camel was intended to be directed at children; the company maintains that Joe Camel's target audience was 25–49-year-old males and current Marlboro smokers. In response to the criticism, R.J. Reynolds instituted "Let's Clear the Air on Smoking," a campaign of full-page magazine advertisements consisting entirely of text, typically set in large type, denying those charges, and declaring that smoking is "an adult custom."
Internal documents produced to the court in
Mangini v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, San Francisco Superior Court No. 959516, demonstrated the industry's interest in targeting children as future smokers ^[3] The importance of the youth market was illustrated in a 1974 presentation by RJR's Vice-President of Marketing who explained that the "young adult market . . . represent[s]
tomorrow's cigarette business. As this 14-24 age group matures,
they will account for a key share of the total cigarette volume --
for at least the next 25 years."^[4]
A 1974 memo by the RJ Reynolds Research Department points out that capturing the young adult market is vital because "virtually all [smokers] start by the age of 25" and "most
smokers begin smoking regularly and select a usual brand at or
before the age of 18."^[5]
In July 1997, under pressure from the impending Mangini trial, Congress and various public-interest groups, RJR announced it would settle out of court and voluntarily end its Joe Camel campaign. A new campaign with a more adult theme debuted: instead of Joe Camel, it had a plain image of a quadrupedal, non-anthropomorphic camel. As part of the agreement, RJR also paid $10 million to
San Francisco and the other California cities and counties who
intervened in the Mangini litigation. This money was earmarked primarily to fund
anti-smoking efforts targeted at youth^[3].
Adbusters has illustrations of Joe Camel as well as some others here [1].

References

1. Fischer PM, Schwartz MP, Richards JW Jr, Goldstein AO, Rojas TH. Brand logo recognition by children aged 3 to 6 years. Mickey Mouse and Old Joe the Camel. JAMA. 1991 Dec 11;266(22):3145-8. PMID 1956101
2. Mangini v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 7 Cal. 4th 1057, 1073-74 (1994). RJ Reynolds. http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/dyf53a00.
3. Coughlin PJ, Janacek F Jr. A Review of RJ Reynolds' Internal Documents Produced in
Mangini vs. RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, Civil Number 939359:
The Case that Rid California and the American Landscape of "Joe Camel". 1997. http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/doc_research_mangini.jsp
4. Tucker, CA. Presentation to the Board of Directors of RJR Industries (9/30/74). RJ Reynolds. http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/pqd49d00
5. Tredennick. THE PURPOSE OF THIS MEMORANDUM IS TO ANSWER THE QUESTION ""WHAT CAUSES SMOKERS TO SELECT THEIR FIRST BRAND OF CIGARETTES?"". 3 July 1974. RJ Reynolds. http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/agv29d00
6. Coughlin PJ, Janacek F Jr. A Review of RJ Reynolds' Internal Documents Produced in
Mangini vs. RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, Civil Number 939359:
The Case that Rid California and the American Landscape of "Joe Camel". 1997. http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/doc_research_mangini.jsp