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

Other news stories related to: " A vintage Benson & Hedge's ad evokes a cheekier (but no less deadly) era of cigarette marketing "

Hearst Magazines launches new ad unit that will send people product samples

The legacy magazine publisher, which has been giving advertisers more opportunities to communicate directly with its audience, extends the strategy to its social channels. The post Hearst Magazines launches new ad unit that will send people product samples appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2019-05-30 04:00:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #social channels #giving advertisers #ad unit

BookExpo 2019: Karin Slaughter Is Killing the Crime Market

With her singular surname, it’s no surprise that bestselling crime writer Karin Slaughter ('The Last Widow', Morrow, Aug.) was destined to write about crime. Slaughter laughs and says, “It was either that or become a serial killer.” Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-05-30 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #serial killer #karin slaughter

The volatile era that gave rise to Jane Austen and Lord Byron

In “The Regency Years,” Robert Morrison looks at a dramatic era of 19th-century Britain. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-05-29 16:53:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #lord byron #jane austen

Facebook expands playable ads and transparency for brands

Platform is also introducing more transparency for advertisers on how effectively their creative is being used. Continue reading at Media Week

[ Media Week | 2019-05-29 15:49:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this |

Federal departments may have broken law by microtargeting job ads

Several federal government departments — including the Canada Border Services Agency, the Correctional Service of Canada and the RCMP — have restricted who can see their job ads on Facebook by age, which could violate Canadian human rights law. ... Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2019-05-29 08:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |

New Gillette ad shows father helping transgender son to shave

Samson Bonkeabantu Brown says he was honored to star in ad‘My father encouraged me to live authentically as my best self’A transgender man learning to shave is featured in a new ad by the razor company Gillette. The ad, posted to Gillette’s Facebook page, features Toronto-based artist Samson... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-05-28 21:33:38 UTC ]
More news stories like this |

How Google is rewriting the rules of ad auctions

Google is moving to a simpler online advertising model called “unified auctions,” but its adoption will be anything but simple for the publishers who rely on the internet giant’s technology to manage their ad inventory. In the coming months, Google is aiming to level the playing field for... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-28 07:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #good read #digital advertising #makes sense #made sense

NRA says ad firm stole its thumb drive as legal duel escalates

The National Rifle Association’s escalating legal feud with its longtime public-relations agency has taken a bizarre turn, with the gun lobby claiming that the PR firm stole a confidential PowerPoint presentation detailing its courtroom strategy. The new controversy centers on an April 29... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-24 23:29:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #$40 million #immediately respond

Ads (sadly) not rebooted for ABC’s ‘All in the Family,’ ‘Jeffersons’ nostalgia trip

You’d think ABC’s live re-staging of “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons” seemed to have offered marketers a rare opportunity to dust off some long-forgotten creative from the leisure-suit era, but as it turns out, most of the brands that advertised in Wednesday night’s retro showcase didn’t... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-24 00:12:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this |

Jay Fielden Joins List of Troy Young-Era Departures at Hearst | People on the Move

Jay Fielden Esquire editor-in-chief Jay Fielden is out after three-and-a-half years at the helm. The latest in a long line of editors and execs to depart Hearst following the appointment of Troy Young to president of Hearst Magazines, Fielden announced on Instagram that he has decided to... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2019-05-23 18:32:49 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #senior editor #american society #contributing editor #associate editor #popular mechanics #tech reporter

Change UK pays for Facebook ad blitz amid dismal EU poll ratings

Party is comfortably biggest spender on online election ads, as other parties hold backChange UK has run a last-minute Facebook advertising campaign to try to shore up its support amid dismal poll ratings for the European elections, but most other parties have mostly avoided large spending on... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-05-23 05:00:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #online campaigning

Roku sets its sights on linear TV ad dollars

Roku is releasing a new measurement tool Wednesday intended to show advertisers how many more people they could reach by shifting budgets from TV to over-the-top, or streaming internet TV. “We’re working with partners, helping them understand and quantify how much viewing is moving from linear... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-22 13:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #capture audiences #convince advertisers #similar results

Platform ad revenue opportunities are growing for publishers, but scale still matters

Ad revenue from YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter is helping publishers build more sustainable video business models -- though scale still matters. The post Platform ad revenue opportunities are growing for publishers, but scale still matters appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2019-05-22 04:01:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #ad revenue

Herman Wouk, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author, Dead At 103

Wouk authored million-selling books like "The Caine Mutiny" and "The Winds Of War." Continue reading at The Huffington Post

[ The Huffington Post | 2019-05-17 16:46:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #caine mutiny #herman wouk

The dream of dual-booting Windows 10 on Chromebooks appears dead

It sounded dreamy. Late last year, signs of an “AltOS” mode appeared in Google code, indicating that the company was working on a way to let you dual-boot into Windows 10 on high-end Chromebooks like the Pixelbook. It was apparently too good to be true, alas, as new developments suggest that... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2019-05-16 18:03:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #initial flurry

The new Normal: Rooney grabs first Mass Market number one as Pinch of Nom rolls on

A day after winning two British Book Awards for Novel of the Year and the overall Book of the Year, Sally Rooney has claimed her first Mass Market Fiction number one. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #sally rooney

A primer for using music in marketing

Indoor cycling company Peloton pedaled into some legal trouble in March—to the tune of $150 million—when the brand was sued for trademark infringement by a group of music publishers representing the likes of Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. For Peloton, which has made a name for itself by selling a... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |

With video ad marketplace Community, AT&T’s Xandr expands inventory

Xandr's video ad marketplace includes inventory from WarnerMedia properties as well as outside publishers, such as Vice and Hearst. The post With video ad marketplace Community, AT&T’s Xandr expands inventory appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2019-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |

Google unveils new digital ad formats, and Facebook issues a warning

Google is giving advertisers a ton of extra digital real estate, adding new promotional formats to online search, YouTube and its increasingly popular Discover service. Meanwhile, Facebook Inc. is close to rolling out a long-awaited privacy feature, but it issued a warning to advertisers... Continue reading at Baltimore Sun

[ Baltimore Sun | 2019-05-14 18:20:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | All news stories tagged with: #online search #promotional formats #giving advertisers #facebook issues #google unveils