While some cigarette advertisements, like those for Marlboro, have their own distinctive looks, this one for Virginia Slims really blends in with its women's magazine counterparts. At first glance, this ad could be for just about anything sold to women: makeup, perfume, jewelry, or beauty aids. It is only in looking closer and reading the advertising copy that you realize that it is an ad for cigarettes. The copy itself really blends in to the background, so it is not the first thing that you notice. Instead, you look first at the woman's face or at the 'Virginia Slims' logo.
You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby: Virginia Slims Advertising Year By Year
The Virginia Slims identity crisis: an inside look at tobacco industry marketing to women
Objectives: Because no prior studies have comprehensively analysed previously secret tobacco industry documents describing marketing female brands, the Virginia Slims brand was studied to explore how Philip Morris and competitors develop and adapt promotional campaigns targeting women. Methods: Analysis of previously secret tobacco industry documents. The majority of the documents used were from Philip Morris. Results: The key to Virginia Slims advertising was creating an aspirational image which women associated with the brand. Virginia Slims co-opted women's liberation slogans to build a modern female image from through to the s, and its market share grew from 0.
“You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby”
It started in — Phillip Morris launches the very first cigarette brand marketed specifically to women. Smoking Virginia Slims was freedom, it was liberation! There is perhaps no better way to witness the changing fashions and zeitgeist of the American woman throughout the s and s than to walk through Virginia Slims advertising. Virginia Slims was quick out-of-the-gate to include an African American in their advertising; however, they would be vastly outnumbered by women throughout the decades. Virginia Slims, thanks in large part to their genius advertising, would become the leading tobacco product for women by a wide margin.






Sandra Erez waxes eloquent about milestones in the ongoing fight against sexual harassment and gender discrimination, covering cultural shifts, legislation and landmark Supreme Court cases. I was a young girl in , when the famed Virginia Slims cigarette commercial spilled over the airwaves and titillated the public with the notion of a cigarette designed just for women. Although laughable now, the concept of a gender-based cigarette created just for women was timely, brilliant and, on the face of it, empowering!
How can you sleep?
You must be logged in to post wall comments. Please Login or Signup (free).