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Tobaccomen have been notably successful in driving home their slogans, from "Ask Dad, He Knows" (for Sweet Caporal) and "Be Nonchalant—Light a Murad" to Old Gold's "Not a Cough in a Carload" and Chesterfield's "They Satisfy."
The current trend in advertising is to link smoking to virility. Though Camels have long been considered a he-man's smoke,* it was Philip Morris' Marlboro (whose pitch was "Mild As May" back in the '20s when it was being pushed as a woman's cigarette) that made the plug explicit with its rough, tough and tattooed Marlboro Man. Chesterfield's Men of America series hinted at the inherent daring in smoking: the man who "takes big pleasure when and where he can." Viceroy's "thinking man's filter" stresses male independence—and has spawned a host of jokes. Printable example: a man comes out of an operating room in white coat and mask, removing his surgical gloves. "What a daring operation!" sighs the nurse. "Actually," says the man, "I'm a plumber—but I think for myself." What kind of person smokes what kind of cigarette? Camels and Luckies are smoked by older people and are strongest in rural areas, where consumers are slow to change habits. Filters have made their biggest impact in the cities, are popular with the young, and are bought by two-thirds of all women smokers. Mentholated cigarettes are more popular with city dwellers and women, have made the biggest hit in the warm South. Marlboros have replaced Chesterfields as the cigarette to smoke on campus. Though both Chesterfield and Philip Morris were long the cigarettes of the Big City sophisticate, the favorite smokes of New Yorkers are now Winstons, Pall Malls and Lorillard's Rents.
No Mules. The uncertain and often whimsical nature of the cigarette market makes the industry highly competitive and secretive. Before a cigarette is introduced to the general public, it undergoes taste-testing for months, is widely market-tested by pollsters. When the secret is out that one company is test-marketing a new cigarette in one area, other companies hustle into the area to fight it with extra salesmen, increased ad budgets.