Eve cigarettes used very feminine art and marketing, starting with the cigarette itself which was long and slim, originally 100mm but lengthened to 120mm within two years, in order to be more readily identified with the feminine ideals of slimness and length. The filter and box of earlier generation Eves were decorated with flowers to look feminine and fashionable, specifically signifying that this was a lady’s cigarette, as well as to catch the eye of consumers.

The advertising approach was to make Eve appear to be a beautiful cigarette which made the woman who chose to smoke Eves more attractive, creating a sense of appeal to feminine vanity. Accordingly, the objective was to capture the market share from other brands, particularly other brands targeted to women, and to recruit non smokers, suggesting that an Eve smoker is more attractive than a woman who did not smoke.

The marketing approach was designed to be very feminine. Models were very elegant, ladylike, and elaborately made up. Advertising text complemented the feminine imagery. In 1976 Eves were even marketed in association with a fashion line with colors and floral prints similar to Eve cigarette packs. The message was that women who smoked Eves were feminine, ladylike, and ladies of leisure. Slogans used included “Finally a cigarette as pretty as you” and “Every inch the lady”.

For almost 40 years Eve cigarettes have been aimed at the same niche market, women and young girls who wish to appear ladylike. They have not sold as well as the competing Virginia Slims cigarettes, which have always had broader appeal.

Packaging edit

The packaging has evolved to keep up with the times. Packaging went from a soft pack with the trademark flowers and drawing of Eve in the garden (gen. 1) to losing the female figure and retaining only the flowers (gen. 2) then moving the flowers to a band lengthwise on a white cardboard box (gen. 3). This packaging went unchanged until 1992 when the small multicolored flowers were replaced by thin orchid like flowers in jewel tones on the box, and a single small colored flower on the filter band of the cigarette (gen. 4). In Germany the packaging and cigarette design did not change, retaining the floral band. Menthol versions of Eve used similar designs but with more green tones. Shorter 100mm Eves in Regular and Menthol boxes were reintroduced in 1985 but gradually disappeared due to lack of interest. In 1990 Eve Ultra Lights 120s were introduced in Regular and Menthol, promising lowered tar and nicotine, and milder flavor. Packaging was white flip top box with long stemmed flowers done in pale pastels, with a single pale pastel flower on the filter band. Menthols were similar but with more green. After 1992 packaging remained unchanged until 2002, except for yet another unsuccessful reintroduction of 100mm length Eve Lights and Eve Ultra Lights in 1991. In 2002 the flowers were replaced by butterflies (gen. 5). Ultra Lights lost the long stemmed flowers they had since their introduction and unified with the regulars for the first time by assuming the butterfly motif, with different colors identifying Ultra Lights (blue) and Menthol Ultra Lights (teal), to complement the colors identifying Lights (purple) and Menthol Lights (green). In 2002 soft pack 100s were reintroduced yet again, using the butterfly design of the 120s. And as before, 100s gradually disappeared.

As of 2010 update four styles of Eve cigarettes were available Eve Lights 120s, Eve Ultra Lights 120s, Eve Menthol Lights 120s, and Eve Menthol Ultra Lights 120s. The butterfly band around the filter and above the rings with the Eve logo was done in a subtle watermark, instead of bright colors as had been done in the past. By July 2010, in keeping with the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the words “lights” and “ultralights” had been removed. Eve Lights 120s were renamed Eve Amethyst 120s, Eve Ultralights 120s were renamed Eve Sapphire 120s, Eve Menthol Lights 120s were renamed Eve Menthol Emerald 120s, and Eve Menthol Ultralights 120s were renamed Eve Menthol Turquoise 120s.

See also edit

  • Fashion brands
  • Smoking culture
  • Tobacco smoking

References edit

Cvs vows to quit selling tobacco products – nytimes.com

E-cigarette summit

On Wednesday, Walgreens said it had been assessing its sales of tobacco products for some time. We will continue to evaluate the choice of products our customers want, while also helping to educate them and providing smoking cessation products and alternatives that help to reduce the demand for tobacco products, according to a statement released by the company. Although CVS ranks first in overall sales and pharmacy sales among the nation s drugstores, according to analysts, Walgreens is the largest in the number of stores.

Rite Aid, another large chain, said in a statement it continually reviewed product mix to make sure it suits the needs and desires of customers.

As for driving away customers to competitors, Troyen A. Brennan, the executive vice president and chief medical officer for CVS, said It s obvious that the average person will just find somewhere else to buy cigarettes. What we re thinking about is if others want to emulate this business decision we ve made, then over time that will make cigarettes less available and scientific literature does suggest that a reduction in the availability of cigarettes reduces smoking.

Dr. Brennan, together with Steven A. Schroeder of the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the University of California, San Francisco, wrote an op ed article making the case for eliminating tobacco products from drugstores in The Journal of the American Medical Association published online on Wednesday.

Some 18 percent of American adults smoke, down from 42 percent in 1965. In places like New York City, which has used a combination of steep taxes on cigarettes and bans on smoking in most places to discourage smokers, the decline is even greater, down to 14 percent.

But health experts remain concerned because the rate of decline has stagnated over the last decade, and some 480,000 deaths each year are linked to smoking. From 1999 to 2003, for example, the smoking prevalence among high school girls dropped 37 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control, but from 2003 to 2007, the decline was only 2.3 percent.

This month, a group of seven advocacy organizations including the American Heart Association and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids called on governments to take steps to reduce smoking rates to less than 10 percent over the next decade and ensure no American is exposed to secondhand smoke within five years.

We have seen the decrease in initiation of smoking plateau, particularly among some populations of young people, and we ve been working very hard on those populations that have been stubbornly hard to reduce but we need to redouble our efforts, said Risa Lavizzo Mourey, the chief executive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Decreasing the availability of tobacco products as CVS is doing is an important and bold step toward making it harder for people to get access to these harmful products.

Coincidentally, the F.D.A. announced on Tuesday the start of a national education program aimed at preventing smoking among youth. The ads, which will be distributed across social media platforms, try to show teenagers the toll that smoking takes on the body in memorable ways, such as a young man who uses a pair of pliers to pull a stained tooth from his mouth to buy a pack of cigarettes.

A shortage of primary care doctors and expanding access to health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act is turning drugstore chains into big players in the nation s health care system. Consumers routinely get flu shots in drugstores, for instance, and clinics staffed by nurse practitioners or physician assistants and offering basic care for common ailments like strep throat or pink eye are popping up everywhere from Walgreens to Walmart.

A report last year by Accenture predicted such so called retail clinics were poised to grow at a rate of 25 to 30 percent over the next few years, which would swell the number to 2,800 in 2015, from 1,400 in 2012.

CVS s 800 MinuteClinics already account for most of such outlets, and Mr. Merlo said the company hoped to add another 700 for a total of 1,500 by 2017. For that reason, he said, the decision to stop selling tobacco products was really more of a discussion about how to position the company for future growth.

The company estimated that the decision would erase 17 cents in earnings per share of stock annually, but that it had identified ways of offsetting the impact on profits. (The earnings hit this year will only be 6 cents to 9 cents a share while the company works through its remaining inventory of tobacco products.)

The company hopes to make up some of the lost revenue and income with a smoking cessation program that it is starting this spring with the goal of getting half a million Americans to stop smoking. Helena Foulkes, executive vice president for CVS, said This is the kind of offering we can bring to clients like insurance plans and companies, many of which will pay for such a program.