Dear Franz Lorenz,
The tobacco industry has found itself struggling in the past few
years, in the Western world (more in the United States than in
Europe), to maintain sales, given the health consequences of smoking.
One campaign that aimed its goals beyond the message of the "coolness"
of smoking was Marlboro Adventure campaign. The campaign is based not
only on commercials and graphic advertising (see examples bellow for
those), but also on a competition/sweepstakes, which offers the
winners an opportunity to take part in a holiday that includes extreme
(adventure) sports; the holiday itself has been filmed, and the film,
just like the experiences of each year's participants, are recorded
for further advertising.
"Philip Morris relies on the Marlboro Adventure Team to extend its
reach. At the inaugural event in 1982, 16 Germans descended on Moab
and quickly destroyed one jeep, three motorcycles and themselves.
Photographers captured it for a new ad campaign, and the Marlboro
Adventure Team concept took off. Moab has held the event almost every
year since then with support from the local community." (SOURCE:
Charles Duhigg, "Smoke 'em Out", Los Angeles Times, November 23, 2004,
<http://www.latimes.com/features/outdoors/la-os-marlboro23nov23.story>;
see also a Flash reportage:
<http://www.latimes.com/media/thumbnails/flash/2004-11/15187043.jpg>).
"To address heightened competition from the discount cigarette segment
of the market in the late 1980s, Philip Morris began investing in
equity building activities, retail visibility and image-oriented
consumer promotions. Marlboro Racing. The Marlboro Adventure Team.
Marlboro Country Store Gear. The opportunity to travel the Marlboro
Unlimited, a state-of-the-art train that was recently introduced as a
sweepstakes in which winners tour the American west.
Today, about one out of every three cigarettes sold in the United
States is a Marlboro and the brand's steadily growing worldwide sales
now exceed 421 billion, testimony to one of the most successful and
recognizable campaigns in marketing history." (SOURCE: Marketing Hall
of Fame, 1996, <http://www.nyama.org/mhf/mhf96.htm>).
Examples of Marlboro Adventure ads
==================================
Salomon Communications - (Germany, leading global campaign)
Marlboro Adventure Team 2000
<http://www.salcomm.de/grabb/mat2000.html>
Marlboro Adventure Team 2001
<http://www.salcomm.de/grabb/mat2001.html>
Poland (no date)
<http://pejzaze.onet.pl/30859,wygaszacze.html>
Japan?
<http://home4.highway.ne.jp/largo/TbccMhjngImage1/tabacco6c.jpg>
<http://home4.highway.ne.jp/largo/TbccMhjngImage1/tabacco6a.jpg>
<http://home4.highway.ne.jp/largo/TbccMhjngImage1/tabacco6b.jpg>
Romania
<http://www.grapefruit.ro/clients/marlboro_adventure_team/interactive/en/interface2/>
<http://www.grapefruit.ro/clients/marlboro_adventure_team/interactive/en/interface/<>
Hungary
<http://health21.hungary.globalink.org/adlibrary/p6.html>
United States (1994)
Ads (magazine)
<http://tobaccodocuments.org/ads_pm/2061035414.html>
<http://tobaccodocuments.org/ads_pm/2061035299.html>
Unlimited Action
<http://tobaccofreekids.org/adgallery/display.php3?ID=293> - a free
glossy magazine, featuring action/adventure scenes and associated with
Marlboro.
Malaysia
<http://tobaccofreekids.org/adgallery/display.php3?ID=180>
Mexico
<http://tobaccofreekids.org/adgallery/display.php3?ID=88>
Participants' Websites
======================
Linus Guardian Escandor II
<http://www.geocities.com/mtxtremist/ADVENTURES.html>
Participants from the Czech Republic
<http://tonylee.kbx.cz/extreme/marlboro.htm>
Czech Participants
<http://hanys.borec.cz/>
German "alumnea" site
<http://www.adventureproject.de/mat/index.shtml>
"Marlboro Abenteuer Team" - The Story - Book (in German).
Image and Values
----------------
If Marlboro had the image of the lone, macho, cowboy, it tries by this
campaign to bring a new image to light: that of the adventurous, young
person - male or female: "Beginning in the mid-1990s, the Marlboro
team changed its focus from macho burly men to more average smokers.
The implied message is easy to understand: Everyone can be a Marlboro
Man; all they need is to love the outdoors, love adventure and, of
course, love smoking." (SOURCE: Charles Duhigg, " Smoking 'em out ",
op. cit).
Goal
----
Marlboro's goal in this and other campaigns is to enhance its image
(and sales, of course):
"In the area of promotions, we have expanded our international
platforms such as the popular Marlboro Adventure Team, Marlboro Racing
and Music Frontiers, and have a range of targeted local promotions to
build volume.[...] Our partnerships
with Ferrari and Ducatti also provide exciting promotional
opportunities" (SOURCE: Consumer Analyst Group of New York, February
19, 2004, Scottsdale, Arizona, Remarks by Andre Calantzopoulos,
President & Chief Executive Officer
Philip Morris International Inc. & Michael E. Szymanczyk, Chairman &
Chief Executive Officer, Philip Morris USA, PDF:
<http://www.altria.com/media/pdf's/CAGNY_2004_Remarks.pdf>).
If Marlboro began this campaign internationally, it has changed and
now focuses on Europe and Asia. In 2001, American journalists were
still part of the campaign (Tom Washington, "Smoking the great
outdoors", Slaon.com,
<http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/02/06/moab/print.html>).
In the 2004 Marlboro Adventure big event in Utah, Americans have not
been given access. Philip Morris' spokesperson had been quoted to say:
"We want the winners to experience the freedom of America. And we find
this is easiest when Americans are not part of the event. [...]
America is Marlboro Country. There is no other place that is so free."
(SOURCE: Charles Duhigg, " Smoking 'em out ", op. cit).
Success
-------
Marlboro's campaign is apparently very effective in promoting their
products in Europe and other places outside the United States, by
imaging youth and adventure; more over, it is also effective in having
a permanent customer database: "By giving away promotional goods,
Philip Morris acquires the personal addresses of millions of smokers
and use them to fuel its "grass-roots movements": it currently has a
database of over 26 million names. For example, in February 1994, four
million people joined in the Marlboro Adventure Team promotion,
receiving more than 14 million promotional items. The campaign, the
largest in marketing history, cost the company $250 million." (SOURCE:
"AN OVERVIEW OF TOBACCO INDUSTRY TACTICS", PDF:
<http://www.cqct.qc.ca/Documents_docs/DOCU_96-99/DOCU_96_11_11_IndustrieENGReformatte.PDF>).
Similar Campaign: Culture/Arts and Cigarettes
---------------------------------------------
Marlboro also uses other forms of advertisement, such as "Marlboro
Racing" sponsorship of prominent athletes such as Formula-1 driver
Michael Schumacher (see here a picture of him with Marlboro
sponsorship on his suit: The Age,
<http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2004/03/07/michael_schumacher,1.jpg>).
This type of sponsorship has turned into a campaign for the much
smaller German label "Nil": their "models" are known and less-known
(alternative) German musicians and performers. The message
communicated through the ads, which also include the upcoming
shows/gigs of these artists: Nil supports German alternative art, it
is more than cool: it is also "important". Its webpage says:
"Zigarette rauchen, Kunst und Kultur erleben. " (Smoke a cigarette,
experience arts and culture).
Example of the "Nil" Campaign
==============================
Meret Becker
<http://www.meretbecker.info/jpegs/nil-2.jpg>
Nil Website
<www.nil.de>
Contrast by the "coolness" ads, also of German brands:
Cabinet
<http://tobaccofreekids.org/adgallery/display.php3?ID=54>
Anti-Smoking Groups: Reactions to Such Campaigns
------------------------------------------------
Marlboro's campaign leaves anti-smoking lobbies is a relatively
difficult position: it doesn't advertise the cigarettes, but the
"adventure", and therefore achieves its goal (of reaching young and
new smokers, of avoiding the health-related associations of smoking)
without violating the restrictions on cigarette advertising.
Mock advertising was one of the strategies chosen: "Between 1988 and
1992, DOC achieved modest successes in Colorado and Wyoming in ending
a tobacco promotion known as the Marlboro Ski challenge, by means of
the purchase of advertisements promoting the "Barfboro Ski Challenge"
("barfing" is American slang for "vomiting" and is frequently used on
popular TV shows). In 1993, in an effort to undermine the Marlboro
Adventure Team's US debut in the western states, DOC repainted a
Volkswagen van as the Barfmobile, hired a handsome comedian as the
Barf Man, printed thousands of Barfboro Barf Bags, and created the
Barfboro Barfing Team. Canvassing six western states in 1993 and six
northeastern states in 1994, the Barfing Team coordinated dozens of
community activities designed to get young people to laugh at the
Marlboro Adventure Team. The growing popularity of the Barfboro
Barfing Team - a low-cost, newsworthy, easily replicated, and readily
updated promotion - highlights the importance of shifting the focus of
anti-smoking efforts from generic campaigns that emphasize the dangers
and the ugliness of smoking, and instead onto brand name-ridicule
aimed at changing the attitudes of young users toward Marlboro."
(SOURCE: Quote from Tobacco and Health, p. 656; Alan Blum, quoted at
<http://www.tobaccoprogram.org/tobaccorefguide/ch28/ch28p22.htm>)
Except for lobbying for better supervision on advertising; and making
anti-smoke mok advertisements, the anti-smoke groups are also
sometimes active against this campaign directly:
""Critics have long attacked the Marlboro Adventure Team's use of
public spaces, arguing that America's canyons, deserts and picturesque
birthrights shouldn't help sell cigarettes. In response, during the
last five years Philip Morris has gone underground, operating on both
public and private land and keeping as low a profile as possible.""
(SOURCE: Marlboro Adventure, The Piton,
<http://www.thepiton.com/2004/11/marlboro_advent.html>).
Read Further
============
Katherine M. West, The Marlboro Man: The Making of an American Image,
University of Virginia
<http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CLASS/AM483_95/projects/marlboro/mman.html>
Rapp, Stan, "Tobacco marketers' moment of truth; an idea whose time
has come: a national, direct response anti-smoking campaign." _Direct_
April 01, 1994 <http://static.highbeam.com/d/direct/april011994/tobaccomarketersmomentoftruthanideawhosetimehascom/>
"Tobacco Under Fire" Mother Jones,
<http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/1996/05/tp1.html>
Philips Provision
<http://www.prodvd.philips.com/news/provision/aug1999/uk/marlboro.htm>
- Promoting itself as part of Marlboro Adventure Team
I hope this answered your question. Please contact me if you need any
further clarifications before you rate this answer. My search
strategy, after choosing a campaign, was to search the internet for
information about it, according to your criteria. |
