Week Four EOC -- Smoking Advertisement

In 1952 Reader’s Digest published an article stating that smoking was bad for ones health.  This was a shock to the millions of Americans who already enjoyed smoking and had for many years.  After all, the US Government put cigarettes in soldiers cases during the war, which undoubtedly got many of the men on the force addicted to the cigarettes in the first place.  After this article came out, the tobacco industry had to start finding new and creative ways to sell their product and suggest that cigarettes were not bad or not that bad for the individuals who enjoyed them.  Lucky Strike cigarettes were one of the first companies to realize this and use a  new type of ad campaign.  In this particular ad there is a depiction of a doctor who states on behalf of 20,679 other physicians that Lucky Strikes are less irritating to the throat.  This type of reassurance from so many doctors was bound to ease the minds of some consumers, it gave them a reason to buy Lucky Strikes if they weren’t already, they were less bad for them as some of the other available brands.  The ad is targeting all those consumers who already smoke, and specifically those who do not smoke Lucky Strike and are concerned about the health effects that smoking will have but are still unable to quit their habit.  But there is also a second type of consumer that they are going for in this ad.  It may seem simple and inconsequential but this was a new thought in the 50s, Lucky Strike came up with a slogan.  No longer would say that there cigarettes were the best because they thought they were, they were the best because they were toasted.  Lucky Strike capitalized on the fact that the general populous may not know that in fact every brand of cigarettes have toasted tobacco inside.  If a consumer were not swayed by the possible health benefits of Lucky Strikes (or in fact just didn’t care) the cigarettes were still set apart from all of their other competitors because they had something special the others did not, they were toasted. (Photo courtesy of  Go Retro)