For the nearly all of their first fifty years of existence, Camel Cigarettes sat at the top of the marketplace. But a shift in consumer tastes toward filter cigarettes, begining in the late 1950s, led to a slow erosion of Camel's market share. To stem this loss, R.J. Reynolds began one of the most clever and effective campaigns in advertising history. On its 75th anniversary in 1988 a suave, new character appeared in the Camel Advertising: Joe Camel. This began the most recent chapter in a tradition of fine advertising started by R.J. Reynolds himself.
This book documents the Camel advertising from 1964 to 1995. In addition to traditional posters and signs, these years saw the introduction of hundreds of premiums and merchandise bearing the Camel logos that have found their way into collections of tobacco memorabilia around the world. Each piece is illustrated in full color and current values are given to help the collector.