Kent and Newport Cigarettes Reaching the Black Community

This article is part of the Tobacco portal on Sourcewatch funded from 2006 - 2009 by the American Legacy Foundation.

Kent and Newport Cigarettes Reaching the Black Community

This 1971, 6-page marketing document from Lorillard proposes marketing strategies to increase sales of Newport cigarettes to lower income African Americans. One strategy was to create a Black advertising character called "Bold Soul":

...complete with dashiki and natural, the Bold Soul is intended to create a relevancy that associates Newport with modern Black pride and individuality. The Bold Soul was also used to project an image of masculinity. Headline, short copy and language...tended to concentrate of the blue collar aspect, as well as the lower-middle to lower income levels accounting for 83% of the Black population.

The ad campaigns were intended to create an "implied promise" of "performance" by the cigarette:

'Kent smokes, and that's where it's at' is translated by the Black community as the ultimate in performance, which is the implied promise.

Title KENT AND NEWPORT CIGARETTES REACHING THE BLACK COMMUNITY
Org. Author VINCE CULLER ADVERTISING
Date 19710000/E
Type MRRT, MARKET RESEARCH REPORT ; CHAR, CHART/GRAPH/MAPS
Bates 80735485/5490
Collection Lorillard
Pages 6
URL:http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/cdp13c00

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