If Athletes can smoke, so can we.

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Advertising/Marketing and Psychology have a strong correlation. Because of this, many companies and marketing firms use the concepts of classical conditioning to make their advertisements successful. They often manipulate the consumers' emotions. Cigarette companies, such as Camel, are a good example of this. During the mid-1900s, Camel endorsed popular athletes to appear on/in their advertisements. One example of this was when they used Roger Maris to sell their product.

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By using Maris, a successful professional baseball player, to sell their products, Camel made people think that, although cigarettes aren't good for you, you can still be successful even if you use them. This is an example of how Camel manipulated your previous emotions/views towards cigarettes. Obviously, this was an effective method because cigarettes are now a large part of our economy.

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This is a strategic way of selling every product nowadays. I can't even imagine an advertisement that is not designed to make you feel a certain way, for you to feel closer to that particular product. Advertising indeed has very much of psychology in it, and people who are pursuing a career in advertising have to even take a class called the psychology of advertising. It's an interesting example of how most advertisements use classic conditioning.

You should see the very first episode of TV series “Mad Men”. The episode shows how Don Draper, the protagonist who is the man of talent in the advertisement industry, tries to write an advertising copy after “The Readers’ Digest” published detrimental effect of smoking. The surrounding of this TV drama is New York in the 1960s and everybody without distinction of sex seems to be smoking. This could be explained by your writing which shows how advertisement worked to build positive image of cigarettes by introducing Classical conditioning.

I am always surprised when I see older ads. It was amazing how they marketed things. Hopefully today there are restrictions on advertising that help protect people from being influenced by smart advertisers into doing something that can harm them. Here is an interesting article that shows that when countries put certain bans on tabacco advertising, they see a reduction in the amount of tabacco users.
http://www.globalink.org/en/advertising.shtml

I think it's really stupid that these advertising companies are using famous people to sell bad things. Why would this society want anymore smokers in the world? why would they suggest that smoking cigarettes can make you cool,successful or famous? Maybe this is just because it's an old advertisement and that's when so many more people smoked and it was completely normal to, plus you could smoke in bars and such, so maybe now that theres ways to stop smoking they wouldn't make an advertisement like this.

Unfortunately, false advertising does happen, but it is our job to look past the lies. Every company, at one point or another, uses false advertising to sell their products. As for the product being sold, some people don't realize that the products are bad for them until it is too late. Now a days, we hear how bad smoking is for you, but back then, they may not have known the effects of smoking or second hand smoking. Hopefully companies like Camel don't continue to sell their products that way or at all, but if they do, please try to not fall to their ways.

I think this a powerful part of this advertisement is its target group. It doesn't target the self confident people out there but instead it targets the ones that are trying to fit in. They want to be part of the great life of the strong/successful men that appear with the products. Many of these kinds of people are willing to take chances to try to fit in and smoking seems to be a natural way. They may think, "I want to be part of the athlete type crowd so I will smoke like them. Now we have something in common." This is just one way to interpret this ad's effects although there are many others.

This ad was made during a time where cigarettes were viewed more as a cultural norm, rather than the taboo that is placed upon them by today's society. I'm not saying that what this ad is portraying isn't wrong, but at the time I don't think they really knew (or cared). This ad is clearly targeted towards the 18-24 male age group. It seems to send the message that the best (Roger Maris) only smoke the best (Camels) and you should too. By smoking camels, this is the only way that this target audience can relate to Maris.

This ad really sheds light on how smoking was advertized and how society accepted it. Even going far to using a well known baseball player to relate to a younger audience. Now a days I hardly see advertizement for cigarettes, I see more commercials on quitting smocking plans and the dangers of smoking. With more knowledge of the dangers of tobacco I do not think this type of advisement would work however there are still people who smoke and it might appeal to them.

Ads like these are definitely a huge reason so many people smoked in the past without realizing the negative health effects involved. Even today, I have seen quite a few magazine ads that make smoking look almost glamourous. Although these ads generally don't feature successful athletes anymore the way in which they portray smokers makes them appear glamourous and cool. I think that the ads have little effect on people today, but they are still out there.

While this ad is relevant for history, this strategy is much less common now. I feel that rather than placing that as a primary cause, it could have encouraged smoking. However, I'm curious about to the addictive chemicals that have been added, and increased over the years that have increased the amounts of smokers. Also, what about the anti-smoking campaigns, smoke-free public places, etc? It would be interesting to see how the anti-smoking ads and smoking restrictions have impacted cigarette companies. Just something to think about!

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