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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What We're Reading – April 2019

Her Body and Other Parties, by Carmen Maria Machado I've absolutely loved this collection of short stories, which floats between the weird and the queer, passing horror, black comedy and feminism along the way. Doubles and others are especially important: a wife enters her wife’s dream when they... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2019-04-11 08:49:28 UTC ]
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The Onion gets a new owner

Great Hill Partners, a private equity firm, bought The Onion from Univision Communications Inc. Plus, the firm bought several other Gawker Media properties, including Gizmodo, Deadspin and Jezebel, to Great Hill Partners. Great Hill Partners has enlisted veteran digital editor Jim Spanfeller to... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2019-04-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Art Connects Us: Sarah Odedina

As a recipient of the Arts Connects Us Grant I travelled to Ghana and Sierra Leone to meet with writers and publishing professionals working in the field of books for young readers to foster creative and collaborative exchanges between those contacts and publishing professionals and readers in... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2019-03-19 11:10:28 UTC ]
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Lee Enterprises Reverses Course, Un-Hires New Publisher After Tweets Surface

[caption id="attachment_137853" align="alignright" width="150"] Paul McArthur[/caption] That was fast. A day after announcing the hiring of GateHouse Media senior VP Paul McArthur as regional publisher overseeing four Montana-based news outlets, Lee Enterprises has reversed its decision,... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2018-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why the Pivot to Video Will Prevail

There's been some negative buzz in recent months around publishers' shift to distributed content--and particularly, video ad spending on Facebook. Numerous articles, citing anonymous sources and utilizing mysterious methodology, point to monetization woes, shrinking returns and writer layoffs.... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2017-12-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Abrams Parent Company in Merger Talks

La Martinière Groupe, the French parent company of Abrams, is in discussions to merge with fellow French publisher Média‐Participations. The two companies said that they expect to come to an agreement "in the coming months." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-09-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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AB InBev Buys Stakes in Craft Beer Sites, Provoking a Backlash

Anheuser-Busch InBev has quietly moved into the digital publishing business with a series of investments in websites that cover beer culture and the rising craft beer industry. But the slow move by the nation's largest brewer into the editorial business is raising conflict-of-interest questions... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2017-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook Adds Signup Buttons to Win Over Skeptical Instant Articles Partners

Facebook is giving publishers new tools to attract digital subscribers as the social-media giant tries to ease concerns that its growing power threatens the media industry.In recent months, Facebook has tested "call-to-action" features with select media outlets participating in its Instant... Continue reading at Advertising Age

[ Advertising Age | 2017-04-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Marketers are still into Facebook Live

Publishers may have been left questioning the viability of Facebook Live in recent months, but it’s a completely different story on the marketing side of the spectrum. The post Marketers are still into Facebook Live appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2017-03-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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‘Prescient’ fiction at William Heinemann/Hutchinson showcase

Fiction presaging the turbulent political currents of recent months, and exploring the role of the novelist and storytelling in society, was in evidence at the William Heinemann, Hutchinson and Windmill 2017 fiction showcase. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2017-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Full-time writers slam celebrity book trend

Children’s authors have hit out at the slew of celebrity book deals struck in recent months, warning that full-time fiction writers are struggling while famous people attract big advances and sizeable marketing budgets. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2017-02-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook really, really wants to work with journalists

In recent months, a lot of ink was spilled to criticize Facebook’s role in the dissemination of news, especially related to the past U.S. presidential election. On Wednesday, the company announced a new suite of initiatives aimed at improving its collaboration with journalists and media... Continue reading at PC World

[ PC World | 2017-01-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Facebook Expands Instant Articles to Help Users Discover More of the Publisher's Content

In a move likely meant to stay on publishers' good side, Facebook is trying out a new way to help users discover more news (real news). Starting Thursday, Facebook will let nearly a dozen publishers—including BuzzFeed, El Pais, Fox News and The Washington Post—include more than one Instant... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2017-01-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Self-Publishing: An Insult to the Written Word or a Boon to the Industry?

A few months ago, after I picked up and devoured a beautifully written memoir by Elisa Hategan and was left with a serious Continue reading at HuffPost

[ HuffPost | 2017-01-03 15:48:11 UTC ]
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Time Inc. said to spurn takeover bid

Investors Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Ynon Kreiz made a takeover approach for Time Inc. in recent months, but were rebuffed by the iconic magazine publisher, according to a person familiar with the... To view the full story, click the title link. Continue reading at Crains New York

[ Crains New York | 2016-11-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Country Spotlight: Singapore: Literary Publishing

Singapore literature, or Sing lit as it is known locally, is getting hot—and it is not because of the island’s tropical climate. Recent months have seen many titles, from literary fiction to middle grade series, getting picked up by overseas publishers, including those from the U.K. and U.S. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2016-10-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Snapchat's Redesign Is Aimed at Attracting More Eyeballs for Publishers and Brands

Snapchat's got a brand-new look today. The red-hot messaging app is revamping its feed with a new design that mashes up Discover with Live Stories—the strings of photos and videos that users collect at events—with subscribe buttons, creative headlines and new placements geared at helping... Continue reading at AdWeek

[ AdWeek | 2016-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Header-bidding tech should be free. An open letter to publishers

by Andrew Rutledge, VP Sales, Publisher Technology Group, AppNexus Dear Readers: If you’re a digital publisher or app developer, chances are you’ve been approached by numerous ad tech sales teams in recent months, each extolling the virtues of header bidding. How do I know this? Well, I run... Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2016-04-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pearson and Dow Jones sell stakes in Russian newspaper Vedomosti

Sale marks end of an era for former FT owner as it exits newspaper publishing business after selling its stake to Russian entrepreneur Pearson, which recently agreed to offload the Financial Times, and the publisher of the Wall Street Journal have sold off their stakes in Russian business... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2015-11-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Internal training documents reveal how Facebook tackles diversity, bias, and discrimination

Workforce diversity is something that has been brought into sharp focus in recent months as companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook reveal the make-up of their staff. White, middleclass, male employees dominate the world of technology, and this is certainly the case at Facebook -- even... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2015-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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