Cigs & Swag

TT sends me a piece of 1980s-1990s swag, a Joe Camel Pup Tent, and wonders how a tent was associated with Camel cigarettes. An RJ Reynolds Tobacco advertising campaign of that period leveraged their hip, branded cartoon character, Joe Camel, placing into each pack of Camel cigarettes one note of “Camel Cash,” redeemable for a host of material goods. These tchotchkes included ash trays, camping tents, Zippo lighters, sleeping bags, a very rizz Joe Camel leather bomber jacket (with a camel shaped zipper pull and Joe Camel posing with a pool cue on the back), neon Joe Camel bar signs, pool cues, sweatshirts, a Joe Camel inspired jukebox, a blow torch lighter, matchbooks, windbreakers, fanny packs, a Camel Lotus watch, Camel Vans, shower curtains, a favorite camel thermidor tin, and keychains – to mention a few of the great items you could claim by redeeming Camel Cash (see www.camel.com).

Ironically, Camel Cash didn’t come in the packs of non-filtered cigarettes, only the filtered packs. (As we’ll see, the Joe Camel campaign had been occasionally accused of targeting the youth market, who likely had little overlap with the filterless hard core smokers.) 

Other cigarette brands had their own swag promotional reward campaigns, such as so-called Marlboro Miles (included only in packs of Marlboro Reds). Not to be outdone, Virginia Slims offered promotional materials to their target demographic; the ladies – whose tastes the R.J. Reynolds marketers presumed to include lined trench coats and daily diaries. Marlboro had a different “take” on coolness. The outdoorsy macho Marlboro Man was a free spirited loner, so promotional commercial stuff was targeted to the rebel: a Marlboro Fuji folding mountain bike, sleeping bags, wheeled duffle bags, fleece coats, hammocks, Swiss watches, cameras, a Marlboro Man guitar, matching jean jackets, and leather backpacks. All this merch could be perused in the glossy paper catalogue that came in the U.S. Mail in the 1990s. Essentially Green Stamps for smokers, Marlboro Miles came in packs of Reds;
unlike Camel Cash, with Marlboro Miles you could save 100 Miles and buy a carton of Special Lights. It seems like yesterday; Marlboro Miles were discontinued in 2006.

Camel Cash did not have that kind of longevity, due to the seductive nature of Joe Camel. Reporting in the NY Times on March 10, 1992, Clinton Administration Health officials and the FTC abolished the use of the cartoon character Joe Camel, as children identified with Joe Camel alongside their favorite Disney characters. The claim was made that the anthropomorphic Joe Camel enticed kids and teens to smoke. (Other cartoon characters were similarly banned: KOOL cigarette’s Penguin mascot, 2004 Bud-Weis-Er frog, and even Ronald McDonald who promoted junk food to kids. 

Do you remember the great “Adbusters” of the 1990s? In 1996 they pictured a dying bedridden Camel titled “Joe Chemo” to hammer home the point. 

Before 1980 the only swag I knew was Mom’s orange tassel curtains. It turns out the history of the word is multi-leveled, its etymology the Swedish “svagga:” to sway. What things sway? A cloth bundle bag, by the 14^th century closely associated with thievery.  In Queensland, “swaggin’ it” means hauling stuff. Will Shakespeare included ‘swagger’ in a 1580 play where it meant (and still means) “to strut defiantly;” and fast forward to Hip Hop culture, which discovered in the word “swag” that blend of hipness, coolness, and defiance embodied by exaggerated, flashy accessories, also known as bling. In the 1960s the word was reinforced by the knowledge that s-w-a-g was in fact a hidden acronym – “Stuff We All Get” – and was paralleled in the scientific community by “Scientific Wild Ass Guess.” Jay-Z and Soulja Boy included the word in songs in the 1990s. The Urban Dictionary likens the word to cool self-assuredness and rizz, also freebies stolen or otherwise bagged by materialistic opportunists. 

The king of swag in the 1980s -1990s was Joe Camel himself, mascot for the oldest branded cigarettes in the U.S. (1913). Joe himself was based on a real camel named Old Joe, a featured performer in the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Old Joe’s stately photo graced early R.J. Reynolds brand-establishing campaigns for their Camel cigarettes, before devolving into the swinging mascot of later years.  Why a camel? The tobacco used in the cigarettes was Turkish. Never mind that camels are not native to Turkey and those typically seen by tourists there are imported for the historic Camel Wrestling, a ticketed battle between two male camels during the mating season.

Although a camel was used on the cigarette packaging since its first design in France, it wasn’t until the 1960s when American advertising firm McCann Erickson NY designed a camel who looked like a combination of (Humphrey) Bogart and (Gary) Cooper. When it became evident that 1970s smokers really didn’t know Bogart and Cooper, Sean Connery and Don Johnson features were added to make Joe Camel’s face a winner.

Now to TT’s question: is there a market? The 1993 catalogue for Camel Cash pictured sells for $15, and you will see Smoking Joe in a tuxedo on a motorcycle, holding winning playing cards, with adoring females in the background. The value of TT’s tent to nostalgia-collectors of 1980-1990 swag? $400.