Vintage Cigarette Packs, Part 1 -- lifestyle & identity advertising

I have a collection of these. They're packs. But what's in these packs I'm not allowed to say.
That's right. We're living in strange times. I collect these things and have a page of them on my website. I was informed in no uncertain terms by the "Lords of the Internet" in Silicon Valley that I was a bad boy for doing that. And so that page on my website is demonetized and deranked in search engines, effectively censoring it.
Now, I am simply being misunderstood here. By a robot. Obviously, I am not promoting any activity one might engage in with these things, involving lighters or fire or ash trays or anything of the kind. Why would I do that? These things are harmful--even if more doctors... uh. Ahem. Not only are these things harmful, but most of these that I've collected are over a half-century old... I'll bet they're stale.
Do our internet Lords really think people are so susceptible and gullible that things like these must be kept from view? Well, I guess they ought to know. They make their billions showing and suggesting things to a gullible public.
So I don't want to oversell this video as being politically incorrect and thus on some exciting and taboo subject. But, I guess it kind of is. Like I said, strange times.
Like a lot of things I collect, I collect these things for the graphics. Selling this product has always been all about image, and graphics. In some ways, marketers of this product, going back a century or more, literally invented advertising and marketing as it is practiced in our time.
Huh? How so? Well, the product here, the product itself, no matter who sells it, is virtually identical. It's basically a dried plant wrapped in paper, you know? People used to make their own, one at a time. They could have evolved to be sold, one at a time, out of machines, they way you buy gumballs. Nowhere is it written in the stars that these packs should even exist. Why do they? Well, when companies started to make these things commercially, they wanted to distinguish their brand from the other brands and try and build a loyal customer base. What we call brand loyalty. And so they created unique packaging, with graphics and sometimes a slogan. With this branding they basically invented the idea of the customer identifying with a particular look... and building the feeling in the customer that their own look--the customer's own self-perception--was somehow enhanced by this brand choice. Facts didn't matter; it was image that counted. Nonsense? Of course, but this trick amassed fortunes for those who successfully plied this ruse on a willing public.
This approach to marketing, often called "lifestyle advertising" or "identity advertising," is today...everywhere. Here it is being used to sell vehicles. These sociopathic ads don't tell us facts--they don't inform us is any way. They show us images to which we are supposed to respond with open wallets and thrusting credit cards. It's literally comical to see what these marketers think of us... and what they think will appeal to us. Not so funny is how well this works on some of us. They keep doing it...because it works.
More of a box than a pack, here are "Trim, Reducing Aid you-know what." These are from 1955 and say they were clinically tested to help you lose weight. Clinically tested. From the Cornell Drug Corporation. And here's an oldie, with patina, a 1938 pack of Pall Mall. The Modern Blend. Camel, introduced in 1913, is said to have been the first nationally popular brand in the US. Its packs varied over the years but always retained the classic look. See if you can spot the differences in these two packs, one from 1954, the other from 1955. Literally everything on them has changed, yet the overall look remains the same. Out of the goodness of their hearts, the companies who made these things used to distribute these little 4-packs, FREE, as samples, around, you know, high schools. Oh, and these were given out free too, promoting yet another odious habit--America's habit of lifting up its most mediocre politicians to high office. Occasionally, new packaging types were tried out, such as this plastic, flip-top box of Philip Morris menthols from the late 1960s. Viceroy was another brand that adjusted their graphics frequently but always retained a familiar look. The short pack is from 1952; the "flip-open box" from 1955. The Waldorf-Astoria pack would be called, I suppose, a private label brand for the hotel. Notice something about the foil wrapping on this pack. There isn't any. That dates this pack to the war years, World War 2, when metal was being preserved for military uses. Even foil, I guess. The pack is from 1943... Most of the packs I have are full and original. I bought a few from other collectors that are "rebuilt packs"--I think that's what they called them. These Spuds came to me that way so they have this white seal on the top of them where normally the blue paper tax stamp would be.

[@appalachianwoman561]

Great video & yes it is a shame the internet overlords of silicon valley & our tyrants in DC want to now even block advertising history. I remember packs of non filter Camel's very very well, when I was a kid in the early 1980s on weekends my parents would take me to a Jerry's Restaurant in Middlesboro, KY and right at the door was one of those old cigarette pack vending machines. The kind where you put your money in, in change of course and pull the knob below the displayed brand of cigarettes you wanted. My dad would send me to the machine. I also remember back in the 80s being sent into the store and being sold packs even at 10 yrs old by the cashier because my dad had sent me in. Yes cigarettes might have been unhealthy but what isn't, hell more people today are killing themselves by over eating, eating fast food or absolute toxic junk but it's cigarettes, and now nicotine pouches or vapes they want to forbid. I myself smoked a few years and still do from time to time, but I always use nicotine pouches and yes they're trying to ban those now as well, sheesh!
I remember the non filter packs of Camel's very well. I even remember sending off and getting stuff like a yellow with blue writing Camel jacket, tshirts, and other things. I remember my grandpa used to roll his own cigarettes out of the metal pocket sized red cans of Prince Albert tobacco. Still to this day I love the smell of a cherry and vanilla pipe tobacco that my dad would enjoy from time to time, back when they allowed smoking everywhere including malls and those same malls also had tobacco shops with the wooden indian figures out front. I miss the 80s, if they ever make a time machine I'll go back to then and never return as I hate modern garbage and this putting warnings or stopping everything due to others being too dumb to take care of themselves.

[@WOFFY-qc9te]

First your Doctor recormends ' you know whats ' as being healthy then the Surgeon General has a change of mind. As Mr Go4Corvette points out the use of nefarious plant products in a ' you know what ' is now legal, I suspect a future Surgeon General will revise this. As always an excellent commentary of our past and most informative, much enjoyed with my beer and a ' you know what '. Best from the UK

[@hoffwell]

Looking forward to part two.

[@johnnorman7708]

Kind of a fun blast from the past. "I'd rather fight than switch." Tareyton. We had a Holstein bull named Tareyton with a black patch around his eye way back when I was a kid. Yeah, I remember so many of these, and the full color full page ads in the magazines.

[@johnnorman7708]

My Dad would walk a mile for a Camel back in the 60s. He also rolled his own intermittently, using OCB papers and Velvet, that was advertised as for pipe AND cigs. It's not even an American product anymore and is pretty scarce on the market these days. My Dad didn't go with filters until the early 70s. Vantage and Carlton were a couple I recall him buying in the 70s. I seem to also remember Doral being one he tried for a while too.

[@collectornet]

Oh yeah, Vantage, Carlton, and (I think) Doral were low-tar and/or low-nicotine brands. A lot of folks just drew harder on them. I think I remember Vantage having a hole at the end of the filter.

[@crr8297]

Great video, interesting reminder of how things used to be

[@donl1410]

Looking forward to part two

[@marktubeie07]

Loved this video. Having written copy myself, it must have been a real effort not to slip up & use _'that word!'_ ... except for the wrap up at the end 😉

[@herbcraven7146]

1941 and 1942: before Lucky Strike Green went to war. Or at least before they thought ladies would prefer a white package.

[@ronnieroberts9478]

Good video thank you

[@Go4Corvette]

Look at our society today. Smoking 🚬 pot is now OK along with all kinds of drugs on our streets but cigarettes or a little whiskey is bad. Seems to me we now have more crazy people than ever but I didn't see it with cigarette smokers 😂 The lesser of the evils?

[@JohnShinn1960]

CIGARETTES.
Does my comment show or have I been shadowbanned?
🤔

[@JohnShinn1960]

I see I got a like from Collectornet, so that means one thing, TH-cam's Artificial Unintelligence (AU) missed me, again.
👍🤠

[@WOFFY-qc9te]

Hello did someone comment ?

[@northdetroit7994]

TT