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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Olivia Wackowski, MPH and M. Jane Lewis, DrPH. School of Public Health, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, 317 George Street, Suite 209, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, 732-235-9731, olivia.wackowski@umdnj.edu

Surveillance of tobacco industry marketing provides a means of identifying changing industry strategies and targeted audiences. In January 2006, marketing for R J Reynolds' menthol brand Salem, which as late as 2004 featured dark colors, minority models and urban references, underwent a major change in both look and content, signaling a new identity and audience for the brand. The new campaign, using the slogan, “Refresh your Spirit,” features spa-like images and products, employs soft colors, and uses images and messages that suggest themes of lightness, femininity, health, and “refreshment”. This presentation will describe the new campaign and contrast it with earlier campaigns utilizing examples from Salem's promotional materials (collected from Trinkets and Trash, a surveillance system and archive of tobacco industry marketing), including its brand website, magazine advertising and direct mail. In addition, the presentation will illustrate and describe the seemingly calculated gradual transition in Salem marketing materials from the darker colors and more urban themes of the previous “Stir the Senses” campaign to those employed in the new “Refresh Your Spirit” campaign, such as the lightening and softening of colors through by the gradual introduction of blues, yellows and whites. This presentation will also discuss potential reasons for this shift in identity (such as the recent acquisition of both Salem and Kool under the same parent company and the consequent need to differentiate them) as well as the potential consequences of the implied health claims promoted by this current campaign.

Learning Objectives: