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 ]
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Michelle Obama's record-breaking Becoming helps print market soar

Michelle Obama's Becoming (Viking) has held the UK Official Top 50 number one spot for a third week, leaping 26% in volume week on week to shift 116,920 copies for £1.87m in the seven days to the end of 22nd December. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Europe's Book Market Grew Slightly in 2017

In 2017 the 29 member countries of the Federation of European Publishers (FEP) generated €22.2 billion ($25.3 billion) in total sales, a figure up slightly from 2016 after accounting for exchange rate effects. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-12-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Breslin and Kite bolster HQ marketing team

HQ has strengthened its marketing team, taking on Jennifer Breslin and Joanna Kite. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook users cannot avoid location-based ads, investigation finds

No combination of settings can stop location data being used by advertisers, says reportFacebook targets users with location-based adverts even if they block the company from accessing GPS on their phones, turn off location history in the app, hide their work location on their profile and never... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ad buyers: Don’t blame us for the death of the publishing middle class

The demise of Mic has become a cautionary tale for media that relied too heavily on Facebook and tried to be everything to everyone. The post Ad buyers: Don’t blame us for the death of the publishing middle class appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2018-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As the Spanish book market grows, women-led startups fill demand

US sales of children's Spanish-language books rose 6 percent over the past year, while overall Spanish-language books rose 15 percent. As America's demographics continue to change, business-savvy bilingual mothers are creating bilingual books, apps, and videos. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2018-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Thai Children’s Rights Fair Throws the Spotlight on a Fast-Developing Market

The four-day International Children’s Content Rights Fair—which took place in Thailand, and ended its run on December 2—is focused on children’s content from ASEAN publishers and facilitating rights trading within the region and with overseas exhibitors. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-11-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook exempts news publishers from its archive on political ads

Facebook says it will stop including some publishers' advertising in its political ad archive following months of criticism from news organizations.Next year the social media giant will no longer require publishers who want to buy ads boosting exposure to their articles on politics to go through... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2018-11-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Vintage reissues 50yo political thriller that 'speaks to our challenging times'

Vintage is reissuing Fletcher Knebel’s 1965 novel Night of Camp David, asking “What would happen if the president of the USA went stark-raving mad?”. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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UAE's insistence on Hedges' guilt sustains Emirates Lit Fest boycott

Jailed academic Matthew Hedges, whose life sentence for spying provoked the withdrawal of several authors from Dubai's Emirates Festival of Literature, has been pardoned. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A Member of Slovakia’s Parliament Calls for a Competitive Textbook Market

Finding itself among a handful of European Union nations still with a state-controlled textbook market, Slovakia, says parliament member Branislav Gröhling, must change. The post A Member of Slovakia’s Parliament Calls for a Competitive Textbook Market appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Glamour's goodbye to print, DDB's big win and Facebook's ad issues: Wednesday Wake-Up Call

Welcome to Ad Age's Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital news. You can get an audio version of this briefing on your Alexa device. Search for "Ad Age" under "Skills" in the Alexa app.What people are talking about todayGlamour, long a mainstay in Cond... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2018-11-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon is now taking a 30 percent cut of ad sales from Fire TV

Amazon is taking a bigger piece of ad sales on Fire TV, its connected TV devices, by requiring TV networks and digital publishers to hand over 30 percent of their commercial space for it to sell, according to new terms from the e-commerce giant.Until last month, Amazon let the publishers sell... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2018-11-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Continued audio growth for big publishers as new players enter market

Audiobook sales are continuing to rocket, with a number of the biggest publishers in the space confirming they are still experiencing “strong double-digit growth” year on year. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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China’s Children’s Book Market: Big Numbers and Local Talent

As China's children's book market matures, publishers are look at ways to develop more local talent while maintaining a balance with foreign titles. The post China’s Children’s Book Market: Big Numbers and Local Talent appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-11-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook shutters ad tech services as it stumbles in quest to topple TV

Facebook's plans to topple TV advertising have come to a halt as it shut down key programs that delivered commercials to TV networks and publishers online.Ads are no longer being served to connected TV devices like smart TVs, Apple TV and Roku, the company confirmed. The reason, according to... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2018-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stan Lee hated bad car ads, and appeared in some pretty good ones

Pop culture fans are today mourning the death of Stan Lee, the comic book legend who helped bring to life such iconic superheroes as Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk and X-Men. Much like the characters he created, Lee appeared in commercials from time to time over the years. He also had... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2018-11-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Stan Lee, the arch superhero of comic books, is dead at 95

There will never be ’nuff said about this legendary creator. The man born Stanley Lieber published his first comic book under the pseudonym Stan Lee in 1941–Captain America Comics #3–and he never looked back. He went on to create some of the most memorable, beloved, pivotal characters in all of... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2018-11-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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One Book Fair to Another: At Sharjah, London Book Fair Plans Market Focus Indonesia

As the Sharjah International Book Fair opened this month in the United Arab Emirates, London Book Fair and Indonesia's cultural program team met to plan for March's Market Focus program at Olympia London. The post One Book Fair to Another: At Sharjah, London Book Fair Plans Market Focus... Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-11-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Shanghai Children’s Book Fair Looks to Capitalize on Growing Market

With sales of children's books in China up 14% in the first nine months of 2018, attendees at this year's fair see more opportunities for deal-making. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-11-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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