Devry University
Doctors Choose to Smoke Camel Brand Cigarettes Camel is a brand of cigarettes developed by R.J. Reynolds, an American company, in 1913. The company has had many advertising slogans since its development. The first noted was “I’d Walk a Mile for a Camel”. In the 1940’s, the pitch was that Camels were “Slow Burning” and this helped reduce nicotine levels. With the U.S. entering WWII, the ads started to include soldiers and suggested to send soldiers cartons of Camels. In 1943, there was an ad with a woman smoking a cigarette a couple feet away from a toddler, while preparing to send Camels to her husband away in the war. At this same time, Camel ran ads stating their cigarettes had 28% less nicotine than other cigarettes. When the war was over, Camel started to run ads that said “More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Cigarette”. This ad really grabbed my attention. Using doctors, soldiers and other admirable figures was the ethos behind these ads. With that, Camel seemed to say that Camel was a safer cigarette. When looking at the ad, you see a man in a shirt and tie, smiling, enjoying a cigarette. The text next to the man says that a doctor is one of the busiest men around. It also states that he is a diplomat, a scientist and a sympathetic man. It compares the audience to a successful person, who is assumed to have good taste. A doctor, who is thought to be successful and comfortable financially, would have better taste and maybe even judgment than most others. Although the ad says nothing about the cigarette being safe, one would assume that if a doctor is smoking this brand, it must be safer. None of the vintage ads said anything about the hazards that come with smoking. The ads almost hide the hazards and give you all that comes to enjoy with smoking a cigarette. Some ads said to “Smoke the Fresh Cigarettes”, suggesting that other brands didn’t clean their tobacco correctly, and the
References: http://indymotorspeedway.com/cigs/1940s.html