Daily Doc: RJR, 1984: How to catch a FUBYA
Daily Doc: How to catch a FUBYA
Title: FUBYAS
RJR, 1984
Bates #: 502780433 -0447
February 27, 2000
Want to know how to get to a kid to smoke? This document provides a road map of how to do it.
As R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company has obviously discovered, it's a matter of reaching inside a young person's psyche, pinpointing his deepest emotional needs and then EXPLOITING THEM with intense advertising imagery.
This document helps us understand why the tobacco companies insist on sponsoring music festivals. It explains why RJR prints its meaningless, confused "nonsense" ads. It also shows that tobacco companies track liquor company ads and often employ the same tactics that are used in beer ads to market their products. It helps us understand the psychological reasons for having a "Marlboro Adverture Team" (it's "on the edge"--appeals to youngster's risk-taking behavior.) In fact, while the rest of us are trying to minimize kids' risk-taking behavior, the tobacco companies are spending millions of dollars to encourage risk-taking behavior in youngsters, fanning the flames as hard as they can.
CITATION
Title: FUBYAS
Type of Document: Report
Author: N/A (R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company)
Date: 19840000
Page Count: 15
Site: R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company Document Site http://www.rjrtdocs.com/
Bates No. 502780433 -0447
URL: - Sorry, RJR still doesn't support the transfer of document URL's. To find this document, go to the RJR site, click "basic search" and enter in the Document ID field the Bates number of this document just like this: 502780433 -0447 (with a space before the dash). Alternatively, you can go the the Advanced Search window and enter the criteria NUM 502780433 -0447 (exactly like that).
QUOTES
FUBYAS
I. Belonging/Close Friends
FUBYAS get their belonging from their social group...cherished friends are a smaller group... Opportunity is friends - What is the benefit? An opportunity to fantasize about friends/adventure. Cigarette is a prop that is associated with a lifestyle. Can this cigarette project an image to others?... Marlboro is peer group belonging. This brand is close friends belonging. The cigarette is a benefit that younger adult smokers want. The advertising provides cues that it is a younger adult brand (example, Marlboro's shift to a masculine image)... FUBYAS are insecure abut their decision making ability. Choose leading big brands w/broad acceptance - not brands that are specifically marketed to FUBYAS. Marlboro not purchased because it's a big brand but because it has the peer approval. FUBYAS are attracted to brands because of searching. If a lifestyle which fulfills key needs is projected and the cigarette is key to that lifestyle then the brand will be attractive to FUBYAS. FUBYAS who do cherish friends will empathize with the imagery and therefore smoke the brand. FUBYAS can project an image of belonging and having cherished friendships when they carry this brand.
Opportunity - Belonging
FUBYAS, by nature, are intense about all their key needs. However, they unanimously agree that there is one need which, if left unsatisfied, makes like not worth living - the need for a few CLOSE FRIENDS.
Position brand against FUBYAS desire for cherished, close friendships.
Create an ongoing story in which two close friends (probably two men, but could also be a man and a woman), travel across the country in a Pontiac Trans Am, finding themselves in new cities, in new situations and meeting new people. The one constant is their ability to depend on each other....
The friendship in our advertising would have to be dimensionalized so that it showed respect, dependence on each other, great humor and sharing...in today's America men hug each other and even kiss each other with no feeling of shame or sexual overtones. The two friends whom we follow should have this kind of relationship while still being able to knock the hell out of the bad guys who might be picking on the little guys.
Opportunity - SEX
A critical element of the FUBYAS transition to full adulthood is their preoccupation with SEX. And, the FUBYAS group is markedly more in turn with liberal sex attitudes than is its non-smoking peer group.
A brand positioned against FUBYAS preoocupation with sex...its pursuit, its discovery, its thrill, its enjoyment. The sensuality/sexuality is expressed by the relationship between the young man and the woman in the ad. They way they look at each other and the way they are posed should communicate an unmistakably strong feeling which they share. This doesn't mean explicit sex, but rather the clear feeling of what they both want along with the hint that what takes place later will satisfy both of them.
Opportunity - EXCITEMENT
For the FUBYAS, a major need is for excitement. Excitement as close to non-stop as possible. The nature of excitement to the FUBYAS is living on the EDGE -- in their behavior and/or in their imagination.
Position a brand against the heart-thumping moment when you're at THE EDGE. Capture the feeling of being at the edge and then show the victorious feeling afterwards when you light up and enjoy a cigarette and feel good about yourself because you have conquered the edge....
Opportunity - FUBYAS Love of Fads and Fun
Fads are so much a part of FUBYAS lives because fads serve their needs for group belonging and identification, for excitement and fun.
One-time, limited duration opportunity brand.
A. An immediate entry into the marketplace in response to popular trends, fads of other passing fancies. For example, a cigarette called nerds or ghostbusters.
Fill the pipeline...against a time of year like shamrock smokes...an annual brand like Bock beer. Limited time availability of a special, seasonal blend.
Opportunity - MUSIC
Since the late 40's- early 50's, when FUBYAS and their peers became a legitimate, important sub-segment of our society, MUSIC has been their most important badge of identity - their music, their performers, their area of expertise. Not only has music served as an acceptable arena of rebellion, it has provided FUBYAS with a private world from which to select HEROES - monumental heroes -- with which to identify. Heroes to worship, heroes to study, to learn about, to KNOW.
Position a brand against FUBYAS which appeals to their strong interest in music and to their demonstrated response to strong masculine character images. The brand would create a hero whom FUBYAS can believe in, someone who won't let them down when he's needed, someone who can make things OK if you call him for help and who lives in an idealized place that they would live in if they could.
The brand would be built around a warm, human, smart musician/probably a singer who has lived life to the fullest, who's been there, up and down...who cries if it's appropriate...
The advertising should be so expressive and visually stimulating that the reader can hear the throb of the rhythmic music playing behind him [the performer], we should share his tired drained feeling as he tried to get himself up to do just one more show...We should...feel the sweat roll down his back and his wet shirt cling to him as he gives everything to please his fans....
ODDS/ENDS
Like Budweiser's young adult ads, use nonsense, meaningless but involving visuals. Develop a mystique like Coors did...
A brand that lets you take a stand or position depending on how you open the pack...yes/no, I'm available/I'm not available, etc. Do a parody of the Marlboro man...he smiles and has no teeth...He falls off his horse like F Troop. Invisible ink becomes visible when the cigarette is lit...puff poker, messages, designs, sell advertising space. 4 or 10 count pack in convenience stores.
This service is brought to you by the American Lung Association of Colorado ( http://www.alacolo.org/) and Smokescreen ( http://www.smokescreen.org)
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Anne Landman, Regional Program Coordinator
American Lung Association of Colorado, West Region Office
Grand Junction, CO
(970) 245-2120
afoxland@gj.net
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