Vintage glass ashtray 'Camel'

Vintage glass ashtray 'Camel'. 

Handy ashtray from the 70s with inscription "CAMEL". Round glass ashtray with orange / yellow border, in which twice the word 'Camel' and twice the logo with camel.

• Height: 4 cm.
• Diameter: 14.5 cm.
   

Camel is a brand of cigarettes that was introduced by American company R.J. Reynolds Tobacco in 1913. Most current Camel cigarettes contain a blend of Turkish tobacco and Virginia tobacco. Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the city where R.J. Reynolds was founded, is nicknamed "Camel City" because of the brand's popularity.

In 1913, R.J. Reynolds innovated the packaged cigarette. Prior cigarette smokers rolled their own, which tended to obscure the potential for a national market for a pre-packaged product. Reynolds worked to develop a more appealing flavor, creating the Camel cigarette, so named because it used Turkish tobacco in imitation of then-fashionable Egyptian cigarettes. Reynolds priced them below competitors, and within a year, he had sold 425 million packs.

Camel cigarettes were originally blended to have a milder taste than established brands. They were advance-promoted by a careful advertising campaign that included "teasers" simply stating "the Camels are coming" (a play on the old Scottish folk song, "The Campbells Are Coming"). This marketing style was a prototype for subsequent attempts to sway public opinion into backing the United States' entry into World War I, and later World War II. Another promotion was 'Old Joe', a circus camel driven through towns used to attract attention and distribute free cigarettes. The brand's slogan, used for decades, was "I'd walk a mile for a Camel!"