• by September 18, 2003

Will Winston Sell Good Like A Cigarette Should? That's what Madison Avenue will surely be pondering for the next several quarters as results from deathstick marketer R.J. Reynold's bold non- advertising strategy for the once venerable Winston brand, as well as its Doral cigarette line, play out. While RJR is making the move out of desperation and flailing profit margins, the decision to continue selling a highly-branded product line without any advertising and promotional support could serve as a unique case study on the effectiveness of advertising or, even worse for the ad business, the effectiveness of not advertising. While other cigarette brands have cut back substantially on marketing, including Philip Morris' Merit and Cambridge lines and Brown & Williamson's Carlton label, none have involved such a distinctive and well recognized a brand as Winston, which has its roots in advertising and marketing lore. Aside from its legacy to RJR's hometown roots (Winston-Salem) in the tobacco belt of North Carolina, Winston was a ubiquitous presence in major event promotions, such as Nascar's Winston Cup, which was to racing what the Kool Jazz Festival was to music. But for those who like the Riff, grew up during the '60s, the Winston brand became an important part of advertising pop culture when its infamous tag line, "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should," became the subject of improper grammar that made the rounds in every public school English class. And, as RJR likely discovered, you just can't buy promotion like that.

Something Fishy Here? Does anyone else find it ironic that the 2003 Emmy award for the best TV commercial was given to a campaign for a television network that doesn't accept TV commercials? Well, at least not TV commercials in the traditional sense of the word. PBS, which does take in a fair amount of underwriting dollars and does air snippets of video from those very same underwriters that look suspiciously like TV commercials, took the top Emmy this year for it's "Fish" commercial. The spot, created by Fallon Worldwide, depicts a goldfish that develops an acute sense of wanderlust after watching a PBS nature show about the mating habits of salmon. The spot beat campaigns from Nike, Volkswagen, Visa and what was perhaps the most overplayed commercial of the past year, Pepsi Twist's "The Osbournes" campaign.