FOR MORE THAN A HUNDRED YEARS, the well-heeled cigarette industry has hired some of the world's cleverest designers to make smoking appeal to as many different types of men and women in as many different cultures as possible. The result is compelling graphic design that employs a startling range of images, from beautiful ladies to skeletons, golden bats to butterflies, boots and blue jeans to top hats. This compendium of more than three hundred of the best international examples is an addictively entertaining resource for designers, typographers, commercial artists, and branding professionals, as well as collectors. Complementing the striking images is a stimulating text that explores various questions about how cigarette brands have been promoted over the years. What factors distinguish a successful brand from a flop ? Who smokes Life cigarettes, and who picks up a pack of Death instead ? What makes certain symbols popular across far-flung national boundaries ? Tiger cigarettes, for example, pop up from Latin America to Indonesia. And how much has the packaging contributed to the fact that cigarettes are still consumed with fervor by people all around the world regardless of class, culture, and the well-known health risks ? The pungent introduction traces the interwoven history of cigarettes and their packaging, from the earliest hand-rolled smokes preferred by soldiers, sailors, and bohemians to the latest trendy pack adopted by the young and terminally hip. History in the larger sense intersects in unexpected ways, with brands positioned to help win wars, glorify local dictators, and immortalize the masses. Thematic chapters ranging from Orientalism to Snob Appeal to Cigarette Indians survey the different categories of designs favored over the years as well as chronicling not only such famous campaigns as the Marlboro Man and Joe Camel but also such lesser-known oddities as Fems, Fez, and Wooden-Kimona Nails.
