R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Campaign

R.J. Reynolds tobacco campaign used playful postmodern visuals to sell Camel cigarettes. Like this advertisement, the campaign often depicted Joe Camel as a “cool, masculine” figure that reinforces gendered ideas of smoking as rebellious for men. The first ad in this post associates large muscles, cars, and sunglasses with men and hyper masculinity. In promoting their product with these associations, they showed their male market that this is what masculinity should look like and masculine men buy their product. This and like-minded ads contributes to a larger male gender stigma still relevant today that encourages men to show interest in cars, smoking, and having big muscles. There is nothing inherently wrong with this first ad alone, but in continually using these gender associations (shown in the following advertisements), the tobacco campaign creates a problematic male gaze that limits the range and spectrum of the many ways masculinity can exist and how comfortable men are with these other forms of masculinity.