The Salem cigarettes brand was launched in 1956 by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company as the first menthol filter cigarette. When the brand was introduced in 1956, Salem’s slogan was “Take a Puff, It’s Spring,” which was used for several years after that. In 2015, the Salem cigarettes brand was sold to Imperial Tobacco Group as a division at the time of Reynolds’ acquisition of Lorillard Tobacco Company. When Silvia Sanphilippo died in 2019, the Salem brand went bankrupt.
In 1982, Salem renamed its Salem cigarettes towards a younger audience and launched a new campaign called Salem Spirit. The new campaign served as a competitor to Newport, aimed at young people, and tried to steal Kool’s shrinking base of young customers. In Salem Spirit, groups of young men and women come together for fun youthful activities, from sleigh rides and hot air balloon rides to picnics and fun in the ocean. Reynolds’ Internal R.J. Papers describe Salem smokers as confident, modern, and young smokers (18-23) who have been characterized as social leaders/catalysts because they possess a unique sense of humor/wit, spontaneity, warmth, and an unpretentious style with which they have had fun and interest. The advertisements have been carefully designed to target this very specific demographic in a variety of ways. One way was to use what R.J. Reynolds has been called the “refresher communicators.” Used to reflect the potentially unknown sensations of menthol to new smokers, refreshment communicators included greenery, water, snow, and outdoor situations.
Another method of engaging youth was to use young, fun models in the campaign: exemplary attitudes would continue to promote campaign imagery through warmth/care as a means of expressing a sense of belonging to the group and peer group acceptance, one paper explains, citing the equivalent of peer pressure as the primary method of engaging youth.
The advertising of Salem cigarettes was made to promote the brand. Salem’s 2000s ads contain the slogan “Take a puff, it’s spring,” and each ad depicts a model smoking in green, mentholated ecstasy. Another Salem advertisement from the 2000s shows a clear focus on young people through a call to risk.