TT sent me a piece of 1980s-1990s swag, a Joe Camel Pup Tent. She wonders how a tent became associated with Camel cigarettes. As an advertising campaign, RJ Reynolds, in association with hip carton Joe Camel, each pack of Camel cigarettes contained “Camel Cash.” Consumers redeemed these for a host of material goods: ash trays, camping tents, zippo lighters, sleeping bags, a very rizz Joe Camel leather bomber jacket with a camel shaped zipper and Joe Camel posing with a pool cue on the back, neon Joe Camel bar signs, pool cues, sweatshirts, a Camel inspired jukebox, and a blow torch lighter, matchbooks, windbreakers, fanny packs, a Camel Lotus watch, Camel Vans, shower curtains, a favorite camel thermidor tin, and keychains.
Ironically, Camel cash didn’t come in the packs of non-filtered cigarettes, only the filtered packs.
Other Cigarette Brands Offered Their Own Swag
Virginia Slims targeted promotional materials to the ladies with lined trench coats and daily diaries. Marlboro Miles came in only Marlboro Reds. Marlboro took a different “take” on coolness. The outdoorsy macho Marlboro Man represented a free spirited loner, so promotional commercial stuff targeted the rebel: a Marlboro Fuji folding mountain bike, sleeping bags, wheeled duffle bags, fleece coats, hammocks, Swiss watches, cameras, a Marlboro Man guitar, matching jean jackets, leather backpacks. consumers perused items in the glossy paper catalogue that came in the US mail in the 1990s. Essentially Green Stamps for smokers, Marlboro Miles came in packs of Reds. Unlike Camel Cash, with Marlboro Miles you saved a hundred Miles to buy a carton of Special Lights. Marlboro discontinued Miles in 2006.
Camel Cash didn’t have that kind of longevity due to the seductive nature of Joe Camel. On March 10, 1992 Clinton administration health officials and the FTC abolished cartoon character Joe Camel as children identified Joe Camel with their favorite Disney characters. They claimed the anthropomorphic Joe Camel enticed kids and teens to smoke. Other cartoon characters similarly got banned: KOOL cigarette’s Penguin mascot, 2004 Bud-Weis-Er frog, even Ronald McDonald—who promoted junk food to kids.
Do you remember the great “Adbusters” of the 1990s? In 1996 they pictured a dying bedridden Camel titled “Joe Chemo” to hammer home the point.
The only swag I knew was Mom’s orange tassel curtains
Turns out the history of the word is multileveled. In Swedish “svagga” means to sway. What things sway? A cloth bundle bag, associated with thievery by the 14th century. By the way in Queensland “swaggin it” means hauling stuff. Will Shakespeare included ‘swagger’ in a play in 1580 meaning “to strut defiantly.” Fast forward to Hip Hop culture which discovered in the word a blend of hipness, coolness, and defiance, associated with material stuff. In the 1960s s-w-a-g became a hidden acronym “Stuff We All Get,” paralleled in the scientific community by “Scientific Wild Ass Guess.” JayZ and Soulja Boy included the word in songs. In the 1990s The Urban Dictionary likened the word to cool self-assuredness and rizz, also freebies stolen or otherwise bagged by materialistic opportunists.
Joe Camel Origin
Joe Camel epitomized the king of swag in the 1980s -1990s as mascot for the oldest cigarettes in the US (1913). Himself, a cartoon of a real camel in Barnum and Bailey Circus. Why a camel? Because of the Turkish tobacco in the cigarettes. Camels however aren’t native to Turkey. They’re seen only by tourists who witness historic camel wrestling, a show during the mating season.
They used a camel on the cigarette packaging since its first design in France. In the 1960s American advertising firm McCann Erickson NY designed a camel who looked like a combination of Bogart and Cooper. 1970s smokers really didn’t know Bogart or Cooper, so designers added Sean Connery and Don Johnson features to make Joe Camel’s face a winner.
Now to TT’s question about a market. The 1993 catalogue for Camel Cash featuring a smoking Joe in a tuxedo on a motorcycle, holding winning playing cards, with females adoring in the background, sells for $15. The value of TT’s tent to nostalgia-collectors of 1980-1990 swag? $400.