Thanks to The New Meat's input into my last topic 'Anthro Adverts' (I would have posted this there if it wasn't locked for some reason) I decided to do a small essay on Joe Camel and how using a 'cool' anthro character can corrupt consumers.

In case you don't know the story which I found quite interesting, this is what I wrote as part of the Anthros in Advertising project I'm doing:

Since 1987, advertising and promotions for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in the U.S.A. were centered around a cartoon character either referred to as "Old Joe," "Smooth Character" or "Joe Camel." Joe Camel became instantly recognizable to the young and old as the symbol for Camel cigarettes and had quickly “become as recognizable to kids as Mickey Mouse” .
It could be that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co had realized the importance of younger adults in the smoking industry and deliberately manipulated the market in such a way, that they knew under-eighteens would be attracted as consumers. Statistics show that only less than one third of all smokers in the U.S. start after age eighteen and only 5% of smokers start after age twenty-four. Therefore, younger adult smoking habits of today will determine the trend and industry volume throughout the next few decades .
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission believed that R.J. Reynolds was very aware of the importance of young adults in the cigarette industry and specifically abused the power of the cartoon character in order to illegally attract minors. The FTC Then charged that the Joe Camel advertising campaign violated federal fair trade practice laws by “promoting a lethal and addictive product to children and adolescents under the age of 18” .
Minors’ attentions were captured when Joe Camel could be seen doing all the “cool” things that young adults do, such as surfing and skateboarding. It was tactics such as these which caused a $470 million increase in annual sales for RJR Nabisco . But on 10 July, 1997, RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co retracted its Joe Camel Campaign and was ordered to help fix some of the damage done by creating ‘corrective advertising’ campaigns in order to reinstate the fact to minors that smoking is harmful and can lead to death.

What's amusing is mostly from what I remember, the Joe Camel ads were ignored in the fandom. Why? No one finds them sexy, not even the Star-Wars anthro ones.

Unless those cigars were gotti's I'd just assume stick with the Camel filters :)

Unless those cigars were gotti's I'd just assume stick with the Camel filters :)

They're Don Diego, Montecristo, La Flor, and Onyx reserve. They are damn decent. >=(

but I can't understand how the two, cigars and cigarettes, can be so vastly different since they have the same stuff inside ... weird.

Cigars are wrapped with tobacco, filled with tobacco, and flavored with tobacco.

Cigarettes are wrapped with paper, and loosely filled with a combination of shitty american tobacco, additives for preservation, additives to make sure it doesn't go out, and additives to flavor it.

And I heard Some brands are rolled by nekkid exotic girls.. between their boobs! =)

Also some of those cuban cigars have coke and/or marijuana in them. (the marijuana often just because it may tend to grow in close proximity to the tobacco crops)

Generally the only good cuban cigar is from before the embargo. After that, communism kind of absolutely fucking ruined the crop and soil situation over there, and the growers can't grow that high-quality tobacco that everyone raves about to this day.

Thanks alot you filthy reds! :x

You could always try pipe smoking.

Pipe smoking went out fifty years ago.

I go for the russian l&m:s, it's a lot cheaper to get cigs from there than in the eu. Also, no annoying warning signs in'em.

Yeah... the best tobacco now is Nicaraguan or... I think Dominican... grown with Cuban seed.

I think aficionados like it even better than pre-embargo Cuban.

I go for the russian l&m:s, it's a lot cheaper to get cigs from there than in the eu. Also, no annoying warning signs in'em.

Latakia

Latakia

That would be the north-african type tobaccos, right? I still haven't tried those but I hear they can be quite good.

To illustrate relative power, the Yahoo Pipe Smoker's group actually has had blends made specifically for them by a tobacco company such as Rocking Chair. You will never see Warner Bros. make a cartoon just for furries, no matter how many Yahoo groups they have. Maybe Dow Chemical will make a poison just for Juggalos to prevent them from having any more groups though.