[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 99 (Monday, July 14, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S7404]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           JOE CAMEL'S DEMISE

  Mr. BYRD. Madam President, on Friday, July 11, I read of the 
retirement of the giant advertising mogul, the macho, motorcycle-
riding, man-beast, popularly known as Joe Camel.
  Apparently old Joe is throwing in the towel and forever taking off 
his black, wrap-around shades to pack his hump and slip quietly off to 
the anthropomorphic rest home for flashy marketing tools. It is rumored 
that his bunk mates will be that patch-wearing, black-and-white spotted 
seller of Budweiser, Spuds McKenzie and Alex, the Golden Retriever who 
finally wore himself out retrieving bottles of Strohs beer from the 
refrigerator for his ever-demanding master.
  I, for one, will not lament Joe's departure from the American 
advertising scene. Maybe R.J. Reynolds' decision to retire him from the 
murky business of luring impressionable young people to ``light up'' 
will influence other corporate giants like Budweiser to ``kick the 
habit'' and ask their famous mono-syllable frogs to croak their last 
croak. Budweiser might even finally be moved to blow the whistle on the 
``Bud Bowl.''
  Our kids are faced with enough temptations through peer pressure, and 
because of the influence of a fast-paced, morally anemic society 
without the influence of cute and clever cartoon seducers such as Joe 
the Camel; the Budweiser frogs; football-helmeted, dancing beer 
bottles; or pomp and circumstance parading dogs, holding bourbon 
bottles instead of diplomas in their mouths.
  All of these Madison Avenue devices, designed to project harmless or 
hip images to young impressionable minds, only serve to reenforce the 
lure of a sterile, pleasure-seeking existence which suggests no goals, 
but a good time on Saturday night.
  I, for one, am delighted with the news of Joe Camel's departure and 
heartened by the fact that at least some in our attention-fractured, 
apathetic society have been outraged by the not-so-subliminal attempts 
to use children to fill up corporate coffers. There is a lesson here 
for those whose allegiance to profits outweighs any sense of moral 
obligation. It is, to paraphrase a famous quote, that those who ride 
the back of the tiger, or the camel for that matter, might just end up 
inside.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.

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