As I was flicking through the newspaper on the plane the other week, a print ad for E-Lites stopped me in my tracks. I am not a smoker, or a reformed smoker, but the ad stood out for me, and I wanted to analyse it a bit more to understand why.
The E-lites brand position themselves as the champions of ‘self belief’. It is done in a way that portrays the audience as independent, self-sufficient and autonomous. Masters of their own destiny. Interestingly, this can be thought of as a return to many of the positive attitudes and ideals that surrounded smoking at the middle of last century. The idea of a rebel, a leader, someone who is separate from others and self-sustaining. The idea of emancipation. This sheds light on some of conventions of their executions. The lone person that faces a grand outdoor landscape they must contend with is very much symbolic of independence and self sufficiency.
The marketing world has got pretty excited about the idea of brand storytelling over the last few years. More brands seem to have stories that they want to tell around their history, provenance, purpose etc.