Vogue is an upmarket brand of cigarette available in several varieties, including regular, menthol and lights. Vogue cigarettes are marketed in both king size and super slim, which is about 100mm long and thinner than a standard size cigarette. The brand is owned by British American Tobacco. 1 Vogue cigarette brand belongs to a decorative or fashionable kind on the cigarettes market and is sold primarily to women. The Vogue cigarette’s style was based on the 1950s couture captured by Henry Clarke. The distinctive design of the package is intended to symbolize elegance, class and refinement. The brand is a clear example of how cigarette companies target specific groups with their products, despite strong scientific evidence showing smoking having highly detrimental effects on human health in the US alone, it is estimated that 173,940 women die from smoking related causes each year. 2

Singer Madonna is shown smoking a Vogue brand cigarette in the video for her 1990 single Vogue.

History edit

In 1999, dubious discuss the line of Vogue cigarettes emerged from an alliance of the British American Tobacco company with its American opponent Rothmans International companies. The Vogue Superslims and Vogue Superslims Menthol were launched in 1987. This trademark remains in a stable position on the market for women.

In 2005, Lilas, Bleue and Menthe, which formed the Vogue Arome line, were added to the main line of Vogue cigarettes. They achieved great success and up to 2006 the whole series of Vogue Arome was stocked on the European market. In March 2007, Vogue Blanche and Vogue Noire were launched.

The manufacturers announced a complete image renewal in August 2007.

See also edit

• Fashion brands
• Smoking culture

References edit

Silk cut – wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Smoke shop discount cigarettes – marketplace – the monitor

It is now illegal to advertise tobacco in many countries and the adverts have stopped. In the 1990s Silk Cut was the best selling brand in the UK, but sales have declined behind cheaper budget brands as tax on tobacco has increased. In an attempt to counteract this, the manufacturers responded in the new millennium by introducing bevelled corners to redesigned regular gauge packaging, and marketing their first ‘slim’ cigarette in the UK, even though this wasn’t the first ‘slim’ cigarette available in the UK as More, Karelia and Vogue are available in most tobacconists. Capri were available in the UK until the mid 1990s.

Silk Cut is also available in a lower tar version and an ultra low tar version with a tar content of only 0.1 mg. When terms such as ‘light’ and ‘low tar’ were made illegal to use in the UK for use of tobacco promotion (for fear that it deluded smokers into thinking such products were safer), some commentators predicted that Silk Cut’s name and good brand recognition as a low tar product would favourably affect sales of the brand to health conscious consumers. Silk Cut Blue cigarettes contain 0.3 mg Nicotine and Tar content is 3 mg. Silk Cut Silver cigarettes contain 0.1 mg Nicotine and Tar content is 1 mg. Silk Cut White cigarettes contain 0.01 mg Nicotine and Tar content is 0.5 mg. Silk Cut cigarettes are also available in a ‘100s’ range (superking size) and in a menthol variety.

It is a misconception that the tobacco in Silk Cuts contains less nicotine than other cigarette tobacco citation needed . The lower nicotine levels are caused by the design of the filter, which has many more holes than regular strength cigarette filters, to mix the smoke with air.

Silk Cut Surreal Advertising Campaign edit

Silk Cut was made popular by a surrealistic advertising campaign launched in 1983, in preparation for a ban on named tobacco advertising. 1 By using the typical colours of the brand, the first surrealistic advertisement of Silk Cut showed a purple silk cloth with a single cut running through it, showing behind it a white background. The name of the cigarette brand never appears on this advertisement, nor are any other objects linked to smoking visible, i.e. packs of cigarettes or smoke. The only hint for the viewer that this ad concerns a cigarette brand at all is the mandatory health warning at the bottom. 2 Based on a series of works by avantgardist artist Lucio Fontana , this first advertisement represented a clever word play on the brand name Silk Cut. 3 This kind of understated advertisement brought together art and life and was unprecedented except for a similar, but not as daring Benson and Hedges campaign in the 1970s.

The campaign went on to be a huge success, even making Silk Cut the best selling brand at the beginning of the 1990s. 4 Silk Cut went on to produce many more advertisements in this style, playing with surrealistic themes and pop cultural references, like Man Rays “Cadeau” as well as Alfred Hitchcocks famous shower curtain scene from the movie “Psycho”(1960). In later parts of the campaing they also created original surrealistic themes for the ads.

The main idea behind the use of surrealism for an advertising campaign was to catch the attention of the viewer by giving him or her a riddle to solve, i.e. guessing what product or brand was actually advertised. Only those who could link the images would eventually come to the conclusion that this is an advertisement for the cigarrette brand Silk Cut. This worked as a rewarding sensation for the viewer, attaching positive emotions (for successfully solving the riddle) with the brand. But it was also possible to interprete darker and sexual themes into the images of the campaign, even though this was most likely not intended. 5

After a running time of almost two decades, the final poster in the series was in 2002 when all tobacco advertising in the UK was finally banned and showed an opera singer, wearing a purple silk dress which had split at the seams a reference to the saying ‘It’s not over until the fat lady sings’. 6

References edit