Bull Durham Smoking Tobacco
Bull Durham Smoking Tobacco also known as “Genuine Bull Durham Smoking Tobacco,” was a world-famous brand of loose-leaf tobacco manufactured by W.T. Blackwell and Company in Durham, North Carolina. that originated around the 1850s and remained in production until August 15, 1988.
Blackwell and his company’s tactics with the brand paved the way for other corporations to succeed through the acquisition of the Bull Durham trademark. The success of the product ultimately is due to the successful advertising campaigns that made Durham world famous, brought jobs to the city, and made Durham the tobacco capital of the United States.[1]
History
As World War II came to a close, tobacco companies needed to expand to new markets in order to maintain prosperity. At this point, they began issuing mass marketing efforts targeting African Americans as the demographic became urban-centric and earned more wages. Before this mass market expansion in the 1940s and 50s, however, tobacco companies sang a very different tune.[2]
When advertisers began to realize that the African American market was untapped and potentially lucrative, countless articles were printed offering businessmen and admen advice on how to attract African American consumers.
Racist Ads
Bull Durham Smoking Tobacco known for it's caricatures of “foolish looking or silly acting blacks to draw attention to its product”. Not creating only one but several ads using black caricatures with black skin and enormously big lips which obviously racist stereotype for African American.
The ads with two black men and a bull in the background is illustrated that the two black men are supposedly acting like white men. Each of the ads has the bull and it is said compare African American men with white men s reproductive parts. White men need to shoot the animal to be real men where as the African American men are the Bull.[3]
References
- ↑ Bull Durham Smoking Tobacco. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
- ↑ Stanford Edu. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
- ↑ Stanford Edu. Retrieved January 21, 2021.