Camel Marketing Campaigns for Cancer in Pink Camo

I thought I'd Jazz up the font a bit for this one...

This past weekend my little sister (hardly a week into her 18th year) came to my new studio for the first time. She came with her friend Michaela, who is still 17. They're seniors in high school. I'm 24. I smoke. Not camels... but that's irrelevant.

So Michaela and Marina come in and I'm hurrying to finish the straightening process that is my hair. I sit here, right here, at my computer/vanity when I pull the mini mirror out, plug in the appliances and strategically place my brushes. Whether this seat is a desk chair or a vanity stool, there is something that always stays... my butts, I have my ash tray, a bottle half filled with water, and usually nearly full with butts, This is where they go so they don't smell... again, irrelevant. But you get it, I'm hooked. They're part of my routine. All my routines. When I was a senior in high school, I was already a smoker. Albeit, a light one, but a smoker, nonetheless.

My generation marked the end of the "smoking is cool" marketing campaign targeted at young kids. It worked.... I guess.

Michaela had a pack of cigarettes on Saturday. I was surprised, I asked if she smokes; the answer was no. But these cigarettes were so cool. The pack was a trendy black and pink. Camel Number 9s. The cigarettes weren't pink, but, apparently, there are hot pink ones as well. I learned tonight there are also pink and green ones (menthol). My little sister and Michaela share a cigarette....

Now I was appalled (inside) and intrigued (visibly) and I wanted to try a drag too... briefly - Marina has always been an athlete and a gymnast, has never let me smoke in her car (so I don't ask) and she thinks it's gross... the way I smoke... like a... smelly, smelly smoker! But here she was, puffing the prettiest, girliest cig with Michaela, trying to blow smoke rings...

I did try this cig. It was so... fluffy, pink... good! I forgot to purchase a pack at the store when I went to get my ~2 day fix of 3 packs.

Tonight I was out listening to a favorite local band at a local bar. The location was somewhere I went often during my BC days. School is in session so I was not surprised to see those "free lighter" people come around and take down your drivers license info and give you a free lighter... I didn't want one, because of the way they fail me when they run out of fluid in 2 minutes... but I spoke with one of the two marketers... a couple of years ago these were always Marlboro reps. But I went with my gut and asked, "are you with Camel?"

Not surprisingly, she was!

I began to chat with her briefly about Camels new marketing campaign. I told her how I thought it was creative, and was surprised to even see a new marketing campaign at all with a cigarette company, the way things are these days with the lawsuits...

Then I asked her if it works. Her reply: an ultra enthusiastic, "it DOES work!"

She began to describe how sorority girls (who I guess don't usually smoke... no Greek life at BC, I wouldn't know...) were utterly AGOG about the pink cigarettes! I told her how my sister was smoking one - (and then explained why that was odd) and she said her sister too... and that her sister didn't smoke... but now she does, and she got her a pack.... and she trailed off in a way, after I had (so un-journalistically) blurted out, "but you think it's wrong, don't you?" ...seeing I'd made her uncomfortable, I normally would have apologized and let her know I smoke too, but instead I urged, "I mean, deep down..."

We spoke briefly about how I guess they went the legal route without using names that imply "light" this or "ultra light" that, because, as tobacco companies now know, this misrepresentation is illegal,,,

But I remember when targeting kids who were too young to smoke was illegal. I told her that within 10 years they would be slapped with a ton of lawsuits some creative lawyer would think up something illegal about their current marketing and this would all go down far down the road "when you're not marketing cigarettes anymore" I said to the girl before we said a friendly goodbye... well, sorta friendly, I guess.... because in a politely impolite way, I made her think about her job... and it's meaning... a little too much for a random Monday, I guess...

::spark, spark::

::inhales a comforting first drag of a Marlboro medium::

::contemplates dumping Phillip Morris for Joe Camel's hot daughter Jane Camel, cause she is just that scandalous and tempting::

::exhales::