Lucky Strike Cigarette Packet
| Designer | Raymond Loewy / Lucky Strike |
| Dates | Packet produced 2007 |
Description
This is a cardboard carton, made from some form of laminate over a rougher card to make the structure and printed directly onto the laminate surface. The packet is predominantly white, but pinstriped like old baseball uniforms and has red bands round it. The black box is a health waring that has to be featured on the packet and is the same accross all brands.
A Personal View
Raymond Loewy was the man responsible for the way the brand looks today, as he re-designed the packet to look similar to todays to make way for a new method of marketing. The old packet dark green packet was considered a bit old fashioned and not in favour with women, so the design was modified in 1939. The reason given for going from green to white was to do with the current World War and the need for copper (supposudly in the green ink, but 'Luckies' paint didn't actualy contain copper). The new look was very bold, modern, clean cut, sexy and above all appealing to women... fast becoming a new market for tobacco products.
The packaging hasn't changed much since then, asside for new inks, printing methods and digital design interfering with the aesthetic but the look is still there. This adds a real aire of nostalger to the packet, your buying into a piece of retro Americana with every packet. Forgeting the nostalgic side of this design, the old design looks like it could have been produced yesterday, not in 1939 and shows what a powerful marketing tool successful branding can be.
Context
Cigarettes can be seen as a fashion item to some people, lucky strike have a certain 1950's chic that appeal to both men and women. Other brands such as 'Mayfair' or 'Royals' look cheap and people associate them with being low quality when in reality the product is quite equal.
Lucky Strikes are also the only cigarette brand with a myth and a story behind them. The reason of why "its toasted" or the reference of a "lucky strike" is often the subject of debate... some stating it has to do with the lighting of a match causing a blaze on a tobacco ship, the ship was lost but the tobacco survived, albeit, 'toasted'... or some say that in the war every 1000th cigarette in packets given to soldiers was a marijuana joint so lighting that 'Lucky' could be lighting the lucky cigarette... however a more reasonable explanation is that it refers to the manufacture process of toasting, not sun drying to give a distincitve flavour. And with Luckies, every match strike is a 'Lucky Strike'?
This adds to their appeal as a 'cool' brand of cigarettes. The Lucky Strike brand is instantly recognisable, and most of Lucky Strikes success can be attributed to the brand positioning.
Links
http://www.example.com/ - interesting nostalgic Lucky Strike adverts
http://www.example.com/ - {the official Raymond Loewy website}
| Author: | Richard Butler | Date: | April 2008 |