February 16, 2007--Fanaticism LXXV--Jill Camel
I’m not sure my father would like this news—R.J Reynolds is coming out with a version of Camel cigarettes pitched to women. Called Camel No. 9, it will be sold in a hot-pink pack. (See NY Times article linked below.)
Wondering about the No. 9? Love Potion No. 9; Chanel No. 19—get it? Very girly.
My dad was a macho man and smoked Camels right down to the end of each butt. If necessary, I’m sure he would have been willing to walk a mile to get a pack. Or send me for one.
When they came out with a filter-tip version and replaced the soft pack with the flip-top box, these two things alone motivated him to give up smoking. I can’t begin to imagine what he would think, if the smoking didn’t kill him, if he knew that you can get mentholated Camels and now this new feminized version with its “Light and Luscious” slogan.
At a time when much of the western world is making efforts to limit smoking, even banning it in most European Union restaurants and bars to curtail the health-related risks, at a time when women now constitute nearly half of all smokers and of course as a result heart disease has become the foremost cause of death among women, R.J. Reynolds and their ilk can’t contain their marketing impulses and greed.
Looking across at Marlboro, their chief rival among the intrepid set who want to smoke a real cigarette, Camel is concerned that only 30 percent of its smokers are female whereas Marlboro Women make up 40 percent of their customers. So they see opportunity here and thus they prepared and ran ads for Camel No. 9 that had the florid packs surrounded by flowers. Just in time for Valentines Day.
To quote the Camel marketing folks who tried to make light of all the fuss about the ethics of attempting to draw more women to cigarettes even though more now are dying of lung than breast cancer—the introduction of Camel No. 9 is simply part of a strategy to “focus on products that are ‘wow,’ that add fun and excitement to smoking.”
I guess we haven’t come such a long way baby.
Move over Joe here comes Jill Camel.
Wondering about the No. 9? Love Potion No. 9; Chanel No. 19—get it? Very girly.
My dad was a macho man and smoked Camels right down to the end of each butt. If necessary, I’m sure he would have been willing to walk a mile to get a pack. Or send me for one.
When they came out with a filter-tip version and replaced the soft pack with the flip-top box, these two things alone motivated him to give up smoking. I can’t begin to imagine what he would think, if the smoking didn’t kill him, if he knew that you can get mentholated Camels and now this new feminized version with its “Light and Luscious” slogan.
At a time when much of the western world is making efforts to limit smoking, even banning it in most European Union restaurants and bars to curtail the health-related risks, at a time when women now constitute nearly half of all smokers and of course as a result heart disease has become the foremost cause of death among women, R.J. Reynolds and their ilk can’t contain their marketing impulses and greed.
Looking across at Marlboro, their chief rival among the intrepid set who want to smoke a real cigarette, Camel is concerned that only 30 percent of its smokers are female whereas Marlboro Women make up 40 percent of their customers. So they see opportunity here and thus they prepared and ran ads for Camel No. 9 that had the florid packs surrounded by flowers. Just in time for Valentines Day.
To quote the Camel marketing folks who tried to make light of all the fuss about the ethics of attempting to draw more women to cigarettes even though more now are dying of lung than breast cancer—the introduction of Camel No. 9 is simply part of a strategy to “focus on products that are ‘wow,’ that add fun and excitement to smoking.”
I guess we haven’t come such a long way baby.
Move over Joe here comes Jill Camel.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
9:48 AM
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