A vintage Benson & Hedge's ad evokes a cheekier (but no less deadly) era of cigarette marketing

Sometimes an ad gets just a little too truthful for its own good.  By the time this 1972 full-pager for Benson & Hedges 100’s ran in Life magazine, smoking was widely understood to be associated with a range of serious diseases. So, sure, let’s equate using our product to jumping out of a plane.  Bought by Philip Morris in 1958, Benson & Hedges is a British brand and still a subsidiary of the American conglomerate Philip Morris International. This ad was part of a larger “favorite cigarette break” campaign that leaned into the fact that Benson & Hedges offered longer cigarettes at the same price point, so people kept accidentally snapping the suckers in two. “Nobody had ever mutilated a cigarette before in American advertising—cigarettes, like automobiles, had always been treated with reverent respect by their manufacturers,” Mad Woman Mary Wells Lawrence wrote in her 2002 memoir “A Big Life (In Advertising).”  “Anything anti-establishment seemed smart in the mid-’60s, so our advertising made Benson & Hedges wildly hip and cool and the cigarette to be seen with.” (Lawrence, the first female CEO listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is still alive at 91. Must not have been a smoker.) But the times? They are a-changin’. Benson & Hedges parent PMI was in the news last week as merger talks between it and Altria Group, another American purveyor of cancer, broke down. Altria itself holds a minority stake in Juul Labs, the embattled e-cigarette maker... Continue reading at 'Advertising Age'

[ Advertising Age | 2019-09-30 09:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #merger talks #minority stake #recent months #memoir

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How French Publishers Are Fighting Back Against Facebook and Google's Display Ad Dominance

The battle to keep online advertising yields and returns high in a market of infinite volume and little scarcity rages on. But some publishers are deciding that it's not their fellow broadcasters, magazines and newspaper who are the problem but t ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-09-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #french publishers #fighting back


Do Mass Market Originals Still Work?

Despite shrinking sales, declining shelf space, and the rise in popularity of relatively inexpensive ebook editions, mass market paperback is still a category that can be used to break out an author—especially in tandem with other publishing formats. A number of publishers contacted by PW said... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-09-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #shrinking sales #publishing formats #savvy marketing


Master Online Marketing with Free Kindle Ebook

For a limited time, you can score a free copy of "Get Up to Speed with Online Marketing," by Jon Reed. Read it on your PC, your Kindle, or any device that can run a Kindle app. Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2012-08-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why Increased Competition for Marketing Spend is Bad News for Print Media

The newspaper business’s reliance on the industrial machine of printing and distributing is often understated. It’s a delicate ecosystem that can have a real effect on publisher margins – as the fluctuation in newsprint ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-08-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #increased competition #marketing spend #bad news #print media


Marketers get a refresher: Sex still sells

You've bought rope for that special someone, picked up a few sex toys and read those Fifty Shades of Grey books a time or three. You know who you are. Well, no need to skulk about at naughty shops or the hardware store as Fifty Shades of Consumption makes it further into the mainstream. Stuart... Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2012-08-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #free events #brooklyn location


Rakuten beats Amazon to Japanese e-reader market

Kobo's parent Rakuten claims to have sold 100,000 devices following a launch of the Kobo e-... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-08-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Are Tablet-Only Publications Dead?

Is there a future for tablet-only publications? The last few weeks have cast an ominous shadow over this niche industry following substantial staff cuts at News Corp.'s The Daily and a decision by the Huffington Post to give up on charging for its iPad magazine after just five issues. While... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2012-08-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #media company #compelling reason


Digital market 'not yet there' for illustrated

Illustrated publishers say the digital market is yet to take off for their businesses, with... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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London's high street 'dead' as Games hit trade

Retailers have spoken of “dead” high streets in London as shoppers avoid the West End... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon Picks Up Market Share

Amazon appears to have been the big winner in picking up former Borders customers. According to new figures from Bowker Market Research, Amazon’s share of book spending in the first quarter of 2012 was 29%, up from 23% in the comparable period in 2011. Barnes & Noble’s share of spending, in... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book spending #amazon appears #big winner #borders customers #barnes noble


Ilex Press Enters U.S. Publishing Market

After packaging for a number of American publishers, among them Focal Press, St. Martin’s, Abrams, and Chronicle, U.K.-based Ilex Press is entering the U.S. with its own line of books that is being distributed by Ingram Publisher Services. Founded in 2000 by U.K. publishing veteran Alastair... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon.co.uk takes 21% of entertainment market

E-book sales have helped Amazon to gain a 21.1% share of the entertainment market in the UK,... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dress Up Your Kindle Fire or iPad as a Vintage Book With These Covers

These cases let you make your Kindle Fire or iPad look like a vintage copy of Moby Dick or The Great Gatsby. Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2012-07-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kobo to enter Italian market with Mondadori

Kobo is to launch into the Italian market, bolstered by a partnership with the Mondadori Group,... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomberg Businessweek Eyes Push Into UK Market

Bloomberg Businessweek has signalled its intention to make greater inroads into the UK market and become a “real global brand” by increasing its circulation in Europe and Asia by 80,000 copies a week. The US-based magazine giant ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-07-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #uk market #bloomberg businessweek


Cultivating Book Sales At Farmers’ Markets

It used to be that offering customers coffee, tea, or occasionally wine or beer with their books was enough. But in some communities, books go better with heirloom tomatoes, sweet corn, and local organic meat. Outdoor marketplaces may not work for everyone—Powell’s Books in Portland, Ore.,... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-06-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hearst Unveils Private Ad-Buying Marketplace for Its Magazine Websites

Another big magazine company is looking to ad tech to make its online ad inventory more valuable. Six months after Conde Nast launched a private ad marketplace to increase the sell-through of its online ad space without opening it up to public ad e ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #magazine websites #ad tech


Market slips despite 50 Shades

E L James' Fifty Shades trilogy has once again shattered records, as The Bookseller reported... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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SmartMoney Chops Its Dead-Tree Version

After 20 years on the newsstand, SmartMoney will end print publication with its September issue and go all digital. Dow Jones, which owns the site (and this one as well), said the print publishing schedule just couldn't keep up with volatile market news. Continue reading at AllThingsD

[ AllThingsD | 2012-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #september issue #dow jones


Big players slip as emerging markets rise

The top 10 publishers in the world had their lowest combined market share last year in the Livres... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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