How far will tobacco companies go to market to certain targets?

Over the weekend, I went out for my friend’s birthday. It was at Picoras pizza on Broadway. The long lines at this New York style pizza joint definitely attracted everyone here. Since we had to wait outside, I couldn’t help but notice the two ladies beside me smoking a cigarette. No, this wasn’t any ordinary cigarette, it was a pink cigarette and one of them was holding the black box with a pink camel on it. The box was elegant and attractive looking – gave an image of “classy cigarettes” to the ladies. I was drawn to this because I thought to myself; you know… I have never seen a pink cigarette/ This is totally an advertising strategy of turning cigarettes into a trendy “oh this is a girly thing.. I have a cute cigarette”. To me, I think of the florescent pink as an attention grabber – definitely a girly color – a color that begs for attention. Anyways, I came home and went on GOOGLE to search on Camel’s advertising strategy behind their new line of cigarettes that targeted strictly to WOMEN. There on The New York Times, the article titled “A New Camel Brand is Dressed to the Nines” on Feb 15, 2007.

The article was definitely interesting and focused on how Camel for decades had focused on males and that this was encouraged to pull higher markets for females. They also mentioned how Camel was competing with other cigarette companies such as Virginia Slims which targets females as the light cigarette.