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By Root 367 0

time around, we were looking at more than warning labels. This cigarette-related investigation posed questions about subliminal messaging I’d always wanted to get to the bottom of: Are smokers affected by imagery that lies beneath their level of consciousness? Can cigarette cravings be triggered by images tied to a brand of cigarette but not explicitly linked to smoking—say, the sight of a Marlboro-red Ferrari or a camel riding off into a mountainous sunset? Do smokers even need to read the words Marlboro or Camel for their brains’ craving spots to compel them to tear open a cigarette pack? Is subliminal advertising, those secretly embedded messages designed to appeal to our dreams, fears, wants, and desires, at all effective in stimulating our interest in a product or compelling us to buy?

BUT BEFORE WE get to our fMRI test and its startling results, let’s do a little mind experiment of our own. Imagine that you’ve just walked into a chic urban bar where the clientele is young, good-looking, and hip, where the drinks have exotic names like the Flirtini, and the food is gorgeously minimalist and costs an arm and a leg. As you enter, you briefly take note of the stylish upholstery in a familiar shade of red covering the chairs and couches, but your friend is waving to you from across the room, loud music is playing, and as you try to navigate through the crowds, your eyes firmly fixated on the delicious-looking cocktail beckoning you from the bar, those conscious impressions of your surroundings are soon forgotten.

Strangely enough, you suddenly feel the urge to smoke a Marlboro, although you’re not sure why.

Coincidence? Hardly. Thanks to worldwide bans on tobacco advertising on television, in magazines, and just about everywhere else, cigarette companies including Philip Morris, which manufactures Marlboro, and the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which owns Camel, funnel a huge percentage of their marketing budget into this kind of subliminal brand exposure. Philip Morris, for example, offers bar owners financial incentives to fill their venues with color schemes, specially designed furniture, ashtrays, suggestive tiles designed in captivating shapes similar to parts of the Marlboro logo, and other subtle symbols that, when combined, convey the very essence of Marlboro—without even the mention of the brand name or the sight of an actual logo. These “installations,” or “Marlboro Motels” as they’re known in the business, usually consist of lounge areas filled with comfy Marlboro red sofas positioned in front of TV screens spooling scenes of the Wild West—with its rugged cowboys, galloping horses, wide open spaces, and red sunsets all designed to evoke the essence of the iconic “Marlboro Man.”

To ensure the greatest possible exposure for its product, Marlboro also markets rugged, collectible outdoor cowboy clothing, including gloves, watches, caps, scarves, boots, vests, jackets, and jeans all designed to evoke associations with the brand. The Dunhill store in London sells leather goods, time-pieces, menswear, accessories, and even a fragrance meant to underscore the luxurious image of the brand. In Malaysia, Benson & Hedges has even sponsored brand-themed coffee shops selling products emblazoned with the cigarette’s gold logo. As the manager of one of these Kuala Lumpur cafés put it: “The idea is to be smoker-friendly. Smokers associate coffee with cigarettes. They are both drugs of a type.”11

Donna Sturgess, the global head of innovation for the consumer business of GlaxoSmithKline, sums up this phenomenon neatly: “It’s an unfortunate irony that as a result of government bans, tobacco companies have fast-forwarded into the future—and moved into alternative media, methods and mediums as a way to drive their business. In effect, cigarette companies have been forced to develop a whole new set of skills.”

Skills that include worldwide sports sponsorship—namely NASCAR and Formula One. NASCAR (the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) oversees approximately 1,500 races annually at over 100 tracks in America, Canada,