Maturity in Media

                        During my last class, maturity as a blog topic came to mind when presenting touch points. Without going into to many details, one touch point reminded me of the ad campaign, Joe Camel. For those uninformed, Joe was the mascot for Camel Cigarettes from 1987 to 1997, an anthropomorphic camel, and kind of controversial. You know how today there are so many ads telling young kids and teens to avoid smoking? Joe here was kind of the catalyst, being a Looney Tunes-esque design that was depicted as smooth, and cool. He was also in several print advertisements, and was reportedly recognizable to hundreds of children.

                    So, with that in mind, what went wrong here? For example, the video-game Conker's Bad Fur Day came out when this ad was around. Said game is much, much more mature, with sexual references, alcohol and smoking, swearing, you name it. You also have adult cartoons like South Park and Family Guy that are still around, and doing well. Well, for one thing, they're not marketed to children. I know, there are probably children that wind up watching or playing them, but they are blatantly put in the mature markets. On top of that, a responsibility is put to the viewers to not re-enact the actions, or to watch it at all.

                    Well, can't the same happen for Joe? Parents telling their kids to not smoke? Yes.... and no..... you see, when that child gets older, they may like what they saw in these ads, and try smoking camel.  Also remember, these ads with Joe were everywhere, and felt both mature, and light-hearted. Combine that with the negative stigma smoking has gained,  and Joe has fell through for a reason. He wasn't just a mature cartoon character, he was, as the people saw him, manipulative. He wasn't just something they could tell a child not to see also.

                  So, in conclusion, you can have cartoon characters be mature. However, you need to market it to the right crowd if you do, no kids, so no public billboards near Mcdonald's. If not, make sure said character isn't advertising anything, so no beer. With that said, thank you again for reading. I hope my point came across, ask you to comment, and stay tuned.