Back in the day, as in last century, I worked on the R.J. Reynolds account. At the time, cigarette sales were declining because the government was cracking down on tobacco advertising. In 1998, a Master Settlement Agreement was signed putting the tobacco companies on the hook to pay hundreds of billions of dollars to the states to fund healthcare and anti-smoking efforts. To date, the companies have paid more than $152 BILLION.
While cigarette sales were declining, Winston’s share of the market was climbing thanks to the No Bull ad campaign we were cranking out. A couple of years earlier, Winston had made the decision to remove any additives from their tobacco. We translated that product shift into a whole attitude. Sure, No Bull meant no additives in your cigarette. But it also meant a no BS lifestyle.
We had a half-dozen different No Bull campaigns running at any given time to match the media buy. We had a mass campaign that ran along interstates and in national magazines, an alternative campaign that ran in pubs like Rolling Stone and appeared in cooler business districts, and, of course, a NASCAR campaign targeted at the fans of Winston Cup Racing and Team Winston. This was all supported by merchandising, direct mail and experiential campaigns.
Any given week I would write 30-50 headlines for the No Bull campaigns. It was a great exercise for a writer. Give me seven words or less that mean No Bull. When the government outlawed tobacco billboards as part of the lawsuit, Reynolds wanted their last billboard to be their best. I tried to encapsulate what No Bull meant in the context of the government crackdown. The company paid the fine to keep it posted over their headquarters in Winston-Salem for a year after the ban. So, I have the dubious distinction of having produced the last standing tobacco billboard.
