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THE GHOST OF “OLD JOE CAMEL”

Written by Andrew Romeo Sunday, 28 June 2009 16:33

Joe Camel before he became extinct.Just what happened to Joe Camel?

Joe Camel celebrates the brand's 75th anniversary. The anti-tobacco book-burners have made it difficult to get accurate information on exactly when he was created.  An early form of Joe Camel appeared in a 1963 poster so he as at least that old.

Current history states that RJR Nabisco apparently grabbed “New Joe” Camel off of some French, and then-international ads from the late 1970s as a way to commemorate the brand’s 75th anniversary worldwide in 1988.

“Old Joe” has been strutting his ‘stuff’on the Camel packs since 1913. All legal. Traditional CPG marketing.

In 1991, it was recognized by the Journal of the American Medical Association that more American five and six-year olds knew Joe Camel than knew Fred Flintstone and Mickey Mouse.

They didn’t evaluate “Wacky Racers,” “Davey and Goliath,” or “Tennessee Tuxedo,” because, if they had, they would have been caught assuming that kids born in the mid 1980’s knew lots about cartoon characters from the ‘30s and the late ‘60s. They didn't.

Mickey was fresh off a 30-year creative hiatus, and Fred and Barney were canceled for good in 1966. And guess who the Flintstones’ target audience was back then? Not kids.  Check out this commercial flashback of the past.

And by 1991, the show’s dumbed-down reruns and kid-friendly re-boots were long off the air. Ironically, the “Pebbles” line of breakfast cereals at the time was owned by Philip Morris!

The JAMA was, like many medical conglomerations, literary or otherwise, making a tobacco marketing claim based on a Fox News style bait-and-switch: the assumption that our own childhood memories of Mickey and Fred are eternally passed on to the next generations by the media. They are not.

This use of iconic TV characters from our own childhoods resonated with parents, even though kids were generally unaware of their existences.  Their kids probably saw Joe on billboards weekly on the way to the mall, school or soccer practice, whereas the Flintstones and Mickey were unknown due to non-exposure on TV.

As with “Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids,” there is a distinct lack of real marketing knowledge, and a poignant, and possibly deliberate absence of field-marketing expertise in these ‘expert’ reports. If these same "researchers" had used “Garfield” and “Rugrats” instead,  the results of their report would have been far different. “Old Joe” may have survived. The skill here is more shock PR and propaganda, which, when used properly, convinces intelligent adults that 2+2 must equal 5.

Fast forward to today. “Old Joe/Joe Camel” is back in the news as the catalyst of the looming disaster that is now law: Kennedy/Waxman. Philip Morris, in its unholy alliance with the “CTFK” and the US Federal Government, has helped to resurrect Joe’s spirit just as RJR has come out against the bill as being a ‘market-share freeze’ for PMUSA, and all combustible, tobacco products that compete with Marlboro.

It is. “Old Joe” was put to rest eleven years ago. Yet he is mentioned posthumously in many of the news articles of the past two weeks. In effect, RJR is being brought to the altar to have its current expanded “Camel” cigarette portfolio put under the microscope by new flavor regulations based on the logo’s supposed legacy. “Old Joe” cannot have his eternal rest.

The point of this article is not to defend cigarette advertising. Cigarettes are harmful to one’s health. There can be no doubt. The law should lead to an eventual ad ban, as it has in all EU countries. It doesn’t.

A Gratuitous tobacco ad obviously aimed at adults. We nixed the 'Joe Snus' idea a while back.The issue is that by creating a stimulating and noisy case for ‘marketing to kids,’ despite lack of empirical proof of its existence in 2009, it frees up Big Tobacco to continue legally advertising to adults 18 and up. It is a diversionary tactic: Create an enemy to attract the government’s well-meaning liberals and the screaming mob. Get them all to agree to stop the nefarious plot against our kids and….

High-Fives in Washington that a “meaningful” anti-tobacco law has finally been passed are being met with High-Fives 200 miles south in Richmond, VA because nothing has changed.

Now…1000 feet from a school…That can be measured diagonally too, no?

 

ANDREW ROMEOJoe Camel was not a Founding Member of SnusCentral. Surprised the anti-tobacco extremists didn't try to pin that on poor Joe too.
Live from New York on SnusCENTRAL.org

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  1. Larry Waters makes this comment

    Sunday, 28 June 2009

    I personally miss Joe Camel. I thought he was cool. He didn't start me smoking cigarettes: that was Philip Morris with Marlboro Red. Joe Camel was probably a factor in my switching to Reynolds cigarettes, though. I was of legal age and when my parents cleaned our ancestral home prior to selling it, they probably gave away or threw out a ton of Joe Camel lighters, Joe Camel t-shirts, Joe Camel ashtrays....I liked Joe Camel.......... I haven't had a cigarette in 3 years now thanks to Swedish Snus, but I still like Joe Camel. He reminds me in a way of Snoopy from the Peanuts comic strip. Except bigger of course. Probably had camel breath too. I don't miss cigarettes but I miss my old friend, Joe Camel.

  2. Fred H-H makes this comment

    Sunday, 28 June 2009

    As much as I enjoy the commentary on the sad state of affairs for tobacco users, I must make one request.

    Please ditch the white on black text! PLEASE!

  3. Andrew Romeo makes this comment

    Sunday, 28 June 2009

    I also went straight to Marlboro. But the experience of peer pressure when one is below legal age has little to do with advertising, and more to do with what packs mom and dad leave lying around the house. My first smokes came from peers who were enabled by access to cigarettes at home. Then it was just so easy to buy them even before I turned 18, I just got hooked.

    The very existence of cigarette ads was enough to 'mainstream' the product for me as a teenager. The iconic images contained therein were meaningless. Cigarettes were like Pampers, Mr. Clean and Pepsi...consumer products for sale.

  4. Larry Waters makes this comment

    Sunday, 28 June 2009

    You know Fred, it's real easy to Monday morning quarterback a site because you have color issues. Not only was my original little blog before SnusCENTRAL.org very popular, but it was white text on black too!...........Somebody must like it because all the SnusCENTRAL want-to-be's are using white text on black.........that being said, it is INCREDIBLY difficult for my Site Designer to have to re-write the CSS for every single module I have added to core-Joomla. We're almost at 40 modules........When v2 of SnusCENTRAL.org comes out in July, it will be with a template more to your liking. You can pretend I did it JUST for you. Tell your friends. Call a Press Conference.........ROFL..had you going there, didn't I Fred? I wasn't really indignant. :-) You will like the new template; hang in a few more weeks or so.....you could also go shopping on SnusCentral.com. It has a black text on white template....Sincerely, Larry

  5. paulreece42 makes this comment

    Monday, 29 June 2009

    I started smoking Camels, but really don't know anything about Joe Camel except what he looks like, because I'm too young.

    I started smoking Camels because of the advertised "Turkish & Domestic" blend, and automatically assumed that all things, even tobacco products, are better if they're foreign. You know, it's not like America was colonized because of its excellent tobacco or anything...

    Thank God I've gotten smarter and realized that foreign stuff is not always better! Oh wait, I'm posting on a Swedish snus site. Maybe I haven't learned, but that's a good thing in this case!

    I think it's silly to ban any advertising. Pretending it doesn't exist doesn't make it go away, especially when roughly a quarter of the population is advertising their products every day via real life product placement. What a silly, feel-good law tobacco advertising bans are.

  6. Andrew Romeo makes this comment

    Wednesday, 01 July 2009

    Hi, Paul.

    "Turkish" tobaccoes are traditionally darker and somewhat strong tasting. But just because it's "Turkish" doesn't mean it's grown in Turkey.

    All snus is produced with imported tobaccos, especially the stems of hi-nic rustica, which has traditionally come from India, Philippines or even South America.

    Sometimes you'll see a claim that a snus contains "Cuban tobacco" (Montecristo/Romeo y Julieta) or "tobacco grown in Gotland" (Jakobssons, I believe), and the claims are true. But generally, this tobacco is added in to give character to the bouquet and flavor, but is not the source of the nicotine "hit."

  7. feck makes this comment

    Wednesday, 01 July 2009

    According to the "Tobacco In History and Culture- an Encyclopedia" (Scribner, 2002), Camel in 1913 used a tiny amount of genuine, imported Turkish tobacco. Now it is all grown domestically.

    The reason that they used real Turkish tobacco back then was more of a publicity thing to tie in with the whole "exotic" motif they were trying to cultivate.

    Joe Camel was resurrected in 1987, but he appeared way back in the fifties, at least as early as 1953. He wasn't the original "cartoon cigarette icon", though. His creation stemmed from RJ Reynolds trying to compete with Kool's mascot "Willie the Penguin" who was so popular he even had his own comic book (recommended for "school age" children). Willie later faded into obscurity, but in a reversal of fortunes decades later, B&W resurrected him in 1991 as a trash talking, hip "punk" penguin directly aimed at fellow "cool guy" rebels Spuds McKenzie and Joe Camel. The campaign didn't go over so well, and arguably Willie The Penguin was much more of a "youth focused" marketing campaign than Joe Camel ever was. Nobody remembers Willie the Penguin though, just Old Joe.

  8. Andrew Romeo makes this comment

    Friday, 03 July 2009

    Rob: Thanks for that information! There is no shortage of information about Willie on the Internet, and I think it's fairly obvious that B&W wanted to follow in the resurrected Joe Camel's footsteps back in 1991.

    I find the 1990's Philip Morris "Talk to your children about smoking" ads far more troubling.

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