Dealing with an innovative industry: a look at flavored cigarettes promoted by mainstream brands

Abstract

Product and marketing innovation is key to the tobacco industry's success. One recent innovation was the development and marketing of flavored cigarettes as line extensions of 3 popular brands (Camel, Salem, and Kool). These products have distinctive blends and marketing as well as innovative packaging and have raised concerns in the public health community that they are targeted at youths. Several policy initiatives have aimed at banning or limiting these types of products on that basis. We describe examples of the products and their marketing and discuss their potential implications (including increased smoking experimentation, consumption, and "someday smoking"), as well as their potential impact on young adults.

FIGURE 1—

Distinctive packaging sets the flavored cigarettes apart. Kool’s Smooth Fusions utilize a completely new cigarette package design—a hard pack that opens up in the middle into 2 halves like a book, with cigarettes held vertically in each side (upper left). For Silver Label, Salem replaced its standard green or black “slide box” hard park with a sleek, silver, slightly curved, tin/aluminum case (upper right). Camel’s Exotic Blends come in embossed foil-wrapped lining paper within elegant and sleek colored tins, following the traditional style of luxury cigarette packaging (bottom row). Source. Image courtesy of Trinkets and Trash (www.trinketsandtrash.org).

FIGURE 2—

The look, smell, and taste of the 3 flavored cigarette lines set them apart from others. These cigarettes highlight brand logos and use designer tipping and wrapping papers that match their brand and flavor image. Cigarettes from left to right: 3 Camel Exotic Blends, 1 Salem Silver Label, 2 Kool Smooth Fusions. Source. Image courtesy of Trinkets and Trash (www.trinketsandtrash.org).

FIGURE 3—

Kool’s sexy Smooth Fusions magazine ads. Kool’s ads use a sexy theme of mystery and intrigue. These ads ran during June through August 2004 in such magazines as Ebony, Latina, Jane, Maxim, Blender, Cosmopolitan, and Playboy. Source. Image courtesy of Trinkets and Trash (www.trinketsandtrash.org).

FIGURE 4—

Exotic and luxurious marketing images. Marketing images reinforce the overall exotic and luxurious brand identity of Camel’s mainstay Exotic Blends. This magazine ad (top) and direct mail piece (bottom) promote the Exotic Blends as fine products served on platters and used with other select “indulgences” such as chocolates and champagne (bottom). These products are often presented by attractive, luxuriously dressed, and exotic looking models (top). This direct mail piece from Camel (bottom) featured and described each of the five Exotic Blends and invited recipients to “add a touch of flavor to any occasion.” Source. Image courtesy of Trinkets and Trash (www.trinketsandtrash.org).

FIGURE 5—

Smoking as a fun activity for special occasions. The festive ads for Camel’s “limited edition” Exotic Blends frame smoking as a fun activity for special occasions, parties, and for use with alcoholic drinks. The pineapple- and coconut-flavored Kauai Kolada and the lime-flavored Twista Lime were 2004’s summer blends (upper left). Back Alley Blend (upper right) was the bourbon-flavored featured cigarette of Camel’s Roaring 2000s campaign. Berry-flavored Bayou Blast celebrated Mardi Gras (bottom left), and in December 2003, Midnight Madness was marketed as the New Year’s promotional blend featuring the “bubbly flavor of New Year’s spirits” (bottom right). Source. Image courtesy of Trinkets and Trash (www.trinketsandtrash.org).