Advertisement Breakdown: 70’s Salem Cigarette
Salem Cigarettes had done plenty of memorable ads back in the 1970s which makes it interesting to break down the structure. Salem Cigarettes is a tobacco brand in the states under the authority of R. J. Reynolds. The brand reached its popularity with a slogan that marketed towards youth “Take a puff, it’s springtime.” The advertisement above consists of three main components: hooks, the language of advertising, and the targeted audience.
The hook on the advertisement above is “We all smoke for enjoyment. Remember?” which used emotional transfer posed by famous people. In the ads, there is a young lady confidently smoking in a park. It aims to attract youth through the hook campaign’s use of young, fun-loving models. The emotional aspect is transferred through the word enjoyment that represents pleasure in smoking Salem Cigarettes.
The language of advertising used in the ads above is hyperbole in the form of present tense. “Smoke for enjoyment” cannot be taken literally as it uses a slight ambiguity which meant for the hooks to be memorable and re-readable. The form present tense describes the youth’s world they were living in back in the day as their company slogan was “Salem Spirit”. The reason for that was the ads served to rival Newport’s ongoing efforts targeting youth and attempted to steal Kool’s declining young customer base.
Salem Cigarette is always targeting younger adult smokers ranged from 18 until 24. The company describes Salem’s smoker as someone who is self-confident, up-to-date who were characterized as social leaders since they uniquely possess that sense of humor, spontaneity, warmth and unpretentious style that made them fun and exciting to be with. Furthermore, Salem involved in youth cultures by sponsoring novel, movie, and drama series.
Salem is one example of proper advertising which draws a huge amount of consumers. They were always ready to compete with their rival. The advertisement team seems to never run out of ideas. Needless to say, their product is bad for health but the marketing, advertisement, and business is great.
