Historians who study the market believe that the emergence of Camel cigarettes in the tobacco industry divided it into two periods – before and after the creation of the brand. The debut of the brand of cigarettes was in 1913, when Richard Joshua Reynolds founded the Camel company. For the first cigarettes, a mixture of multidirectional tobaccos was used – tart Turkish and soft Virginia. This combination was called “American Blend” and became a model mixture among tobacco manufacturers in all parts of the world.
Why Camel? The picture of a camel on the packages was the idea of Richard Reynolds. For the cigarettes he promoted to the American market, he was looking for a symbol associated with the countries of the Near and Middle East, from where they imported tobacco for Camel cigarettes.
Richard chose a combination of pyramids, palm trees and a single-humped camel – a dromedary. The prototype for the composition was a photograph of Old Joe – a camel from a touring circus. Advertising agents made a creative and intriguing product announcement. In the three days leading up to the release of the Camel cigarettes, the obscure slogan “the camels are coming” was published in all American newspapers. The next day, a new announcement appeared in the new issue of the newspapers, fueling public interest twice as much – “tomorrow there will be more camels here than in Africa.” On the day of the release of cigarettes in the newspapers, you could read a new statement – “the camels are already here.”
The advertising policy of the company was so successful that it provided entire crowds of buyers. The brand has become popular. The portrait of Old Joe adorned the debut packs of popular cigarettes. In the 1920s, the company produced a commercial in which the fair ladies appeared. However, they do not interact with the promotional product; their role is to admire men smoking Camel cigarettes. The image created by the company made it possible to attribute Camel cigarettes to the elite category.
In 1980, the company begins to hold the Camel Trophy – off-road car racing – to finally consolidate the style of strong men’s cigarettes. The race reached the world level – 24 countries participated in it.