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Lucky Strike Cigarettes Ads
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BE HAPPY…GO LUCKY (1996—1997)
The two beautiful sets of Lucky Strike Commemorative Cigarettes pictured below, were made in Holland. Manufactured by British American Tobacco, the striking 1996 Limited Edition set (top), and the 1997 ‘Lucky Lips’ pin-ups (bottom), are handsome additions to any pack collection. |
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GLAMOR FROM McCLELLAND BARCLAY (1932)
The beautiful woman who modeled for artist McClelland Barclay’s glamorous Lucky Strike ad pictured below, wasn’t Miss America. Atlantic City’s famed beauty pageant wasn’t held 1928 through 1932, but that didn’t stop The American Tobacco Company from taking advantage of the popular contest. This striking advertisement was a “thank you” to American women for helping to make Lucky Strike the US’s best selling cigarette in 1931. McClelland Barclay (1891-1943) was a popular illustrator whose paintings of handsome men and gorgeous chiffon-clothed women were often used as the covers of The Saturday Evening Post and The Country Gentleman magazines. This talented artist and naval officer died during World War Two when a Japanese torpedo sank the ship that he was aboard. |
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Lucky choose
Various other aspects of the ad indicate that it is quite appropriate to apply the terms seductive and predatory to the two participants in this scene. |
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Lucky cigarettes at Euro-cig.com
Adaptation of Lucky Strike ad used in Czech Republic |
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Lucky Strike Billiard
The woman is posed in such a way that it looks as though her left breast is bare – either that or else she has a marked disparity between the size of her left and right breasts. |
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Lucky Strike Cigarettes goes to War
LUCKY STRIKE GREEN GOES TO WAR
1942—1943
“Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War!” was heard over and over on the radio, but seldom seen. There were no magazine ads, posters or billboards produced, only cigarette carton inserts. Six drawings of the US’s military might, plus a catchy slogan, made this 1943 patriotic advertising campaign a huge success. A tank and a submarine, motorcycles, a destroyer, a fighter plane, and an AA gun emplacement helped to show off Lucky’s new white uniform. Lucky Strike Cigarettes sponsored several radio programs during the war, including Information Please. The program’s creator, Dan Golenpaul, decided to go to war with George Washington Hill, the president of The American Tobacco Company, over how often his radio announcer was ordered to use the slogan. Golenpaul felt the constant uttering of the phrase was ruining his show, so he filed a lawsuit against the cigarette manufacturer. Radio listeners taking part in a 1943 Woman’s Day Magazine poll voted “Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War!” one of their most disliked commercials. When questioned why he would annoy his radio listeners, Hill spat on a board room table. After wiping up his spittle with a silk handkerchief, Hill explained that this disgusting episode wouldn’t soon be forgotten.
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Lucky Strike Cigs at http://euro-cig.com
Magazine
B&W; of woman in leather jeans leaning over pool table (Publication: Details) |
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Lucky Strike- I choose
What is original about such ads, is the tendency of advertising agencies to make use of psychological insight into the needs of smokers and implement them using techniques that viewers will not become consciously aware of. Ever since psychological research into motivational factors came into vogue such insights have been applied whenever possible. |
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Lucky Strikes cigarettes
1997 ‘Lucky Lips’ pin-up packs.George Washington Hill was president of The American Tobacco Company from 1925 until his death in 1946. The 1940’s most successful advertising slogan, “Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War!,” was conceived by Mr. Hill while duck hunting on Monkey Island, North Carolina. Several days earlier Richard Boylan, head of purchasing for ATCo, had informed Hill that there was only a three months’ supply of green ink available for printing Lucky Strike labels. Chromium, an element which is essential to solid green ink, was a war material in short supply. Boylan told Hill “Just like the soldiers, green ink has gone to war.”
George Washington Hill knew that the green Lucky Strike package didn’t appeal to women, but he needed a reason to change colors. When Hill found out that there was a shortage of merchant ships able to carry war supplies to England and Russia, and that older wood hulled ships were being pressed into service, he had his reason. Copper paint was used to protect the wooden hulls from marine worm damage, and Hill had just learned that copper was an ingredient in the ink needed for the gold bands on the Lucky Strike label. Eureka! George Hill’s new “Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War!” advertising campaign touted the fact that enough bronze (copper and tin alloy) was saved each year to meet the requirements for 400 light tanks, those “speedy battering-rams of destruction!” Lord & Thomas, the Chicago advertising agency that promoted Lucky Strike, received a lot of hate mail because of the patriotic slogan. Critics felt patriotism was being exploited, but Lucky Strike sales did go up dramatically. The “Lucky Strike Green Has Gone to War!” campaign broke about the same time that |
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Lucky Strikes cigarettes at Euro-cig.com
Magazine
Twentysomething sitting against brick wall with “Lucky Strike” graffiti |
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Striking it lucky?
In the same magazine as the Salem and Camel ads discussed above was this ad for Lucky Strike cigarettes. It is seemingly yet another innocuous ad, simply depicting an everyday scene in a bar.
However, note that the individuals displayed are anonymous. In fact, so far as the ad is concerned, as individuals, they are completely unimportant. The woman is apparently simply a sex object for the equally anonymous, smoking, male. Any viewer, male or female could identify with the predatory male or the seductive female.
The shape of her left breast is also mimicked by her thrust forward left knee. A ‘nice pair’ as Gear, Maxim or any other lads magazine would comment. There are also features in the ad that would indicate that the male smoker has apparently just ‘struck lucky’.
Look at the smoke curling up from his cigarette (see the enlarged section of the ad below). The lower section is quite clearly formed into the shape of a young woman wearing a short skirt. Above this figure there is a ‘ball’ of smoke and embedded in the ball’ are criss-cross shapes that can be interpreted as various sized letters, superimposed upon one another. The most obvious ‘letters’ are SEX.
The overall message of this ad, although oblique and indirect, is clearly intended to indicate to young males that sexual conquest is likely if they smoke Lucky Strike. This message is simply reinforcement of a message that runs across a whole series of Lucky Strike ads. Another Lucky Strike ad can be found on the Gatwick Trilogy page.
If one analyses ads such as this, noting the individual elements and features, rather than simply ‘taking in’ the ad as a whole, there are other semi-subliminal features that can generally be noted. Each feature is calculated to enhance the likelihood that viewers will internalize the key elements of the intended message (or messages). In this case one can also note that to the rear of the young mans left knee, embedded on his jeans, is a ‘face’ with a large gaping mouth and two beady eyes. The nose is only hinted ad but it is just above the mouth, where a moustache would normally be. This can be taken as a reminder that smoking is an oral activity. Reminders of orality are also common in Marlboro ads.
A perceptive viewer might also discern another criss-cross patchwork of ‘lettering’ above the mouth. The combination of these elements constitute a salutary, if semi-subliminal, reminder that smoking and sex are activities calculated to relieve anxiety and manage moods. And, despite the brand related caption, An American Original, there is nothing original about such an association. Freud and other psychoanalytically inclined researchers noted this many years ago.
Their application has always provided advertisers with levers to exploit the fallibility’s and weaknesses of potential and actual customers. Their use in semi-subliminal advertising indicates that theories and techniques developed by psychologists and others will now be applied regardless of whether their application it is ethical or note.
The ad discussed above seems to be one of a long line of Lucky Strike ads that have incorporated semi-subliminal elements. Illustrated here are two ads shown in Stephen Bayley’s book The Lucky Strike Packet by Raymond Loewy. One dates back to 1926, the other is more recent and is dated at 1980.
The 1926 ad seems to be pretty innocuous, as is the case with most of these ads. But one simply needs to look more carefully at the different elements of the pattern around the cigarette packet to see that quite a large portion of it is composed of letters.
To the top left of the packet is a clear S to the mid right is a clear E. To the bottom left of the pack is an apparent collage of letters. On this reproduction it is not possible to detect a clear X but it seems, nevertheless, that this ad was trying to produce an association between sex and lucky strike cigarettes.
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x
The ad from 1980 again seems innocuous. It sports a young woman wearing a lumberjack type check jacket. On her sweatshirt or jersey one can determine a face, most likely that of an overweight, middle-aged, male. He is looking downwards toward the young womans stomach and genital area.
The caption is ‘Light my Lucky’. Take into account that there would seem to be ‘lettering’ on the right cuff of her jacket and again directly underneath the cuff and the caption appears to be a double entendre. These are not very distinct on this reduced illustration and are more likely to be evident on the original ad. Note also the texturing of the rocks at the bottom of the ad alongside the cigarette pack. The allow plenty of scope to construction of the letters S and X once such a topic ‘enters ones mind’ .
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America’S Luxury Cigarettes Ads
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