Joe Camel
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Joe Camel |
Joe Camel was the
cartoon mascot for
Camel cigarettes from late
1987 to
July 12,
1997. His cartoon figure and "cool" image caused controversy because the
advertising campaign was widely believed to be targeted at children.
[DiFranza JR, Richards JW, Paulman PM, Wolf-Gillespie N, Fletcher C, Jaffe RD, Murray D. RJR Nabisco's cartoon camel promotes camel cigarettes to children. JAMA. 1991 Dec 11;266(22):3149-53. PMID 1956102]Joe Camel was conceived in the 1950's by an unknown art director in France 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 1980's. 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
[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] 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 childrenâ€"despite R.J. Reynold's 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
1993 and
1994, more appeals to end the campaign followed.
In response to the criticism, they 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."
Under pressure from
Congress and various public-interest groups, on
July 10,
1997, RJR announced it would voluntarily end its Joe Camel campaign and cease to disseminate all ads showing the character. A new campaign with a more adult theme debuted; instead of Joe Camel, it had a plain image of a
quadrupedal, non-
anthropomorphic camel.
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.
Resemblance to Male Genitalia
An
Urban Legend of sorts is the resemblance of Joe Camel's nose and snout to that of a penis and scrotum, perhaps as subliminal advertising. This speculation was undoubtedly fed by the existing legend of the image of the "Naked Man" on the front of Camel cigarette packages.
* In the
Simpsons episode "
Lisa the Beauty Queen", a fictional cigarette company: The "Laramie Tobacco Company" uses a mascot called "Menthol Moose", a cartoony character that hands cigarettes out to kids. It is a clear parody of the Joe Camel character.
*
Mad Magazine once ran a parody ad showing Joe Camel being diagnosed with
cancer of the hump.
* The "Joe Camel" concept was spoofed in the
South Park episode, "
Underpants Gnomes", when a maker of
coffee tried to "appeal to the younger crowd" by making up a cartoon mascot. The mascot was named "Camel Joe", who was later lambasted by a mother for trying to "Push caffeine on children".
* In the
Futurama episode "
Where the Buggalo Roam", Joe Camel appears and is introduced as "...my friend, Joe Camel; kids love him." Clearly a reference to the child marketing controversy.
*In the
Family Guy episode
Mr. Griffin Goes to Washington, Peter, who becomes the president of a tobacco organization, is shown in magazine ads. One of the ads depicts him with Joe Camel's nose and mouth.
*In the
Simpsons episode "
Sideshow Bob Roberts", the Rush Limbaugh-esque character, Birch Barlow, lists Joe Camel as one of the political prisoners of the liberal justice system.
*An episode of
TV Funhouse featured a cross-parody between Joe Camel and
Pokémon called Jokemel, which mixed the use of Joe Camel as a youth-oriented marketting strategy with the popularity of the Pokémon franchise to further market cigarettes to children (the main creature, a cross between Joe Camel and
Pikachu smoked a cigarette-like creature to become more powerful, and there were various Jokemel/cigarette related products "advertised"). The sketch also parodied the resemblance of Joe Camel's face to male genitalia.
