OUGD 601 - Practical - Products

I have chosen to adopt past strategies employed by tobacco advertisers to raise awareness of a 'revolutionary' e-cigarette (that is being faltered by contemporary health labels). Through my dissertation it was continually illustrated that, the ability of tobacco advertisers to react to cultural and social change was striking. With this in mind, I wanted to demonstrate that the subculture, E-cigarettes, can also employ such strategies to work in a contemporary social climate. This idea builds on the end part of my dissertation, by the fact that E-cigarettes are already adopting past strategies of tobacco advertisers in their emergence.

Just as cigarettes were, when they first became socialised, e-cigarettes are seen to be healthy in some aspects, this is due to how new they are and the availability of findings to support claims of them being unhealthy (As demonstrated in my dissertation) My practical illustrates how the emergence of the E-cig has been effected by the rise of the tobacco industry and how they manage to react to experiences encountered in the changing pace of culture.

Part 1i) Health regulators have learned from the way e-cigarettes are advertising and 'recycling the past' of tobacco advertisers and thus created a more direct and shocking health label to try and abolish the idea that smoking electronic cigarettes is in some way beneficial. Introducing such new health labels for the e-cig demonstrates a progression on behalf of the health regulators, as they've learned from the tactics of the tobacco industry who were continually faltering such claims that it was damaging to health. Demonstrating an application of theory.

Part 2) However now the C2 has emerged, and it is pitching the male audience. Just as 'Torches of Freedom' created equality for females. The C2 aims to give back the mastery of the phallus to the male. Promoting ideas of: oral pleasure, the ideal man, bravado,  a mastery of the phallus (cigar).

Promotional publication - (make reference to the front cover & concept of moving with the times, taking inspiration from the past, marlsboro - shape and form. remembered as red for burning. Blue shape and form, remembered as e-cig, the future.

I used an extended version of the logo to strengthen the idea of it being an electronic cigarette while also enhancing the ideas of the man.

I used snappy text just as tobacco advertisers did, to promote the idea that it is ultimately upto the consumer to chose, accommodating to their ideals, despite health warnings, it should be their individuality that speaks for them. And what the e-cig is trying to portray, is that it represents an ideal man who is strong and as one being.

Poster designs...

The following symbols are representations of technological parts, promoting the idea that the e-cigarette has redefined smoking, through its technological advancement.

As most of the promotion for e-cigarettes is done online, I created a web presence that worked fluently with the concepts in my designed identity: www.c2thefuture.com

The label below was introduced after the C2's release, the health regulators decided to step in again and stop this scapegoating that was so prevalent in the history of tobacco advertising, and judging by the way e-cig is following suit, health regulators thought the best way would be too create a health label primarily for C2 - the health label represents a direct attack on the messages that are trying to be portrayed by C2. The intentions where to stop this e-cig becoming a form of symbolism for the modern man. Drawing reference from the idea that it represents a phallus and challenging ideas that it won't be standing tall like the subliminal ideas suggest behind C2's identity.

Developmental screenshots...

I chose the following colour scheme because it represented a very manly collection of colours that suited the contemporary climate.

I chose to use the following types of Apercu text because it was a sans serif font and was a contemporary typeface, again fitting in with contemporary climates.

OUGD 601 - Methods of collection for subject discipline

During the developmental stages of my essay structure, I made sure I was taking note of the online resources available on e-studio and also during the dissertation lectures. While researching and reaching the final stages of my planning, I refereed to information supplied during one of the lectures. Concluding that I was undertaking and pursuing the following…

The following screen shots demonstrate an investigation online...into different aspects of my structured questions, the rest of my information was sourced from the above research methods, noted also in my bibliography. 

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The marlboro case...

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2011/08/16/manly-brand-icons/

"The Marlboro Man is assuredly the most successful and most controversial manly brand icon on the list. Created in 1954 by advertiser Leo Burnett, the Marlboro Man was a lone, rugged cowboy who always had a Marlboro cigarette coolly dangling from his lips.

The story of why the Marlboro Man was created is pretty fascinating. Marlboro cigarettes were some of the first in the U.S. to feature filters. But back in the 50s, filtered cigarettes (and particularly Marlboros) were considered a chick’s cigarette. So to increase sales among men, the Marlboro Man was born. In a few short months after the Marlboro Man campaign started, the womanly aura around filtered cigarettes had successfully been replaced with a manlier one, and sales increased.

The first Marlboro Men were actors dressed up like cowboys, but ad man Burnett thought they lacked authenticity. So he began a search for a real cowboy who could play the Marlboro Man. They found their man in Wyoming rancher, Darrell Winfield. Winfield played the iconic brand spokesman from 1968 to 1989.

During his heyday, the Marlboro Man could be found everywhere–from the pages of popular men’s magazines to a giant billboard in Times Square. But during the late 80s and 90s, the Marlboro Man suffered a one-two punch that resulted in his quick decline. The first blow came from the deaths of three former actors who took part in the Marlboro Man ad campaigns. All three men died from lung cancer, a disease caused by smoking. Their deaths garnered a great deal of negative publicity for the Marlboro Man, the Marlboro brand, and the cigarette industry as a whole.

The second blow came from anti-tobacco litigation, which resulted in limits being placed on cigarette advertising in magazines and on radio, television, and billboards. Because of the negative press surrounding the Marlboro Man and tobacco in general, Philip Morris discontinued the campaign in 1999.

Despite being laid to rest with other brand icons, the Marlboro Man still lives on in pop culture and continues to influence the way masculinity is portrayed in America."

Pintrest: Imagery resource...

Possibly one of the best anti smoking adverts I've seen, displaying a very emotive and psychological approach (similar approach and form from tobacco adverts)

OUGD 601 - Dissertation research (Imagery)

Videos - 

It's impossible to fundamentally grasp these social and cultural developments made by advertising and PR campaigns without some understanding of Edward Bernays, also known as 'The Father of public relations'. Bernays drew upon his uncle, Sigmund Freud, who was the first person to look at the mind and to develop a theory about its basis and creation. In effect Freud established the foundation for our current thinking about the mind. It was an attempt to understand the unconscious human mind and its mental development, a way of categorising and understanding desires, motivations and dreams. Freud believed "Unconscious wishes are always active and ready for expression whenever they find an opportunity to unite themselves with an emotion from conscious life" (Freud, 1913, p.86). Bernays sought to harness these forces and began using his nephews psychoanalytic ideas for the benefit of business and promotion of commodities such as cigarettes, he was adopting techniques that would ultimately control masses "If we understand the mechanisms and motives of the group mind, it is possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it" (Bernays, 2005, p.71). In other words Bernays understood that consumers often share the same characteristics (habits, tastes, economic status, sex, age and so on) yet could still be very different people. Meaning there was a chance to target consumer segments that will share a set of preferences for their products. Bernays had recognised the unconscious desire to advertising and PR campaigns. He had revolutionised advertising by applying the manipulation of: public opinion, values and beliefs and it was during the 1920s that this became a dominant aspect of consumer culture. 

Through such iconography, advertisers were able to establish these characters as complete beings, individual identities, and all through the act of smoking. Tobacco companies had free reign to sponsor and advertise as they saw fit, take for example the case of Winston Cigarettes, with one of the best known advertising campaigns for American tobacco. 'Winston tastes good like a cigarette should'. This slogan appeared throughout popular culture, in: newspapers, magazines, radio and television advertisements. In the radio and television advertisements, the slogan was presented in a sing song fashion. It had even became integrated into the Cartoon programme, the Flintstones, one of the most popular Cartoon programmes of its time. The programme was aired during prime time and in this particular ad, Barney and Fred watch their wives do a whole load of chores, "I hate to see them work so hard" (Fraser, 2014) says Barney, Fred then suggests going to the back of the house so they won't have to watch anymore, where they quickly light up, escaping the idea of work to relax and indulge in a pleasurable activity. In essence this whole scene is communicating their achievement of pleasure through the comparison of tedious jobs and the smoking of Winston cigarettes, consequently the Winston cigarette has become the signifier of meaning, for the idea of relaxation, indulgence and pleasure. 

Images - 

The following display strong messages that use every means of suggestion available to persuade the greatest possible number of people to act in a pre-determined way.

Advertising had started to sell values, images, concepts. Teaching us that products can fulfil and meet our deepest human needs. Thus causing consumers to interpret an advertisement based on its meaning in the light of associations we have with these images. This meant the advertising of tobacco had to be sensitive to desires and cultural norms, the ability of tobacco advertisers to both read and shape these emerging cultural forces was strongly evident throughout their advertising. They shaped the publics perception of smoking to their benefit, building up a prestige in the consumers eyes. This was especially important because the cigarette was a product of such little usefulness, lasting for a very short time and it was largely an undifferentiated product. Cigarette advertisers got actors, athletes and even doctors to endorse their goods, with the help of pseudo-scientific medical reports, advertisers were also able to make astonishing claims. Because of such things, smoking was widely agreed as having certain health benefits, refer to image noted below... for example of Lucky Strike's advertisements which communicated a variety of messages, from the idea that toasted cigarettes are less harmful to your throat and reduce coughing, to the suggestion that their cigarettes could lead to noticeable weight loss "When tempted to over-indulge, reach for a Lucky Instead", says the 1930 Lucky Strike advertisement. To support this idea of embedding meaning, Freud said that "sometimes a cigar is only a cigar" true, but the obverse of his statement, which we must keep in mind, is that sometimes a cigar isn't only a cigar. It is the unconscious appeal that is behind the acceptance of inducements to chose." (Berger, 2007, p94). This shows that people aren't just smoking for the enjoyment of tobacco or the influence of nicotine, but because of a multitude of persuasions. This is the result of cutting edge industry efforts to advertising the cigarette. In conclusion to 'why' It is our search for meaning which has created and given cigarette advertisers the ability to shape our interpretations. There are no doubt more factors at play when you consider this from the perspective that; advertisers not only shaped our interpretation of the meaning of cigarettes but permanently moulded it. Such a viewpoint could be explained by how our personality is goverened resulting in how we identify with the meaning in advertisements.

The broadness and array of cigarette advertising is so vast that it would take weeks to document them all, instead I've chosen a range of advertisements above, that blatantly show the strategies and tactics that advertisers were employing to improve and solidify their popularity.

The following link illustrates a substantial amount of important and relevant information, that can be accessed all in one place...

http://tobacco.stanford.edu/tobacco_main/main.php