Profits Will Prevail Despite Moral Ethics of An Early Founder of Tobacco

One of the genius advertisers in the early 1900's was the son of James Buchanan Duke (Duke University!), founder of W. Duke & Sons - one of the first major tobacco companies.

Second-hand smoke kills, but with an ad like this, who cares?

His name is James B. Duke and he knew that sex sells.  He created trade cards (ancestor of pokemon, sports collectible trading cards) that were inserted in cigarette packages.  Multiple series were created - Civil War Generals, Coins of All Nations - for collection but the most popular were women (mostly unknowns but some were actresses) scantly dressed.

Tobacco will eventually kill or at least disable you, but as long as sex appeal is used in advertising... who cares?



Taken from Duke Library: Emergence of Advertising in America

October 17th, 1894

[JB Duke, NY]

My dear Son: -
I have received the enclosed letter from the Rev. John C. Hocutt, and am very much impressed with the wisdom of his argument against circulating lascivious photographs with cigarettes, and have made up my mind to bring the matter to your attention in the interest of morality, and in the hope that you can invent a proper substitute for these pictures which will answer your requirements as an advertisement as well as an inducement to purchase. His views are so thoroughly and plainly stated that I do not know how that I can add anything except to state that they accord with my own, and that I have always looked upon the distribution of this character of advertisement as wrong in its pernicious effects upon young man and womanhood, and therefore has not jingled with my religious impulses. Outside of the fact that we owe christianity all the assistance we can lend it in any form, which is paramount to any other consideration, I am fully convinced that this mode of advertising will be used and greatly streghten [sic, "strengthen"] the arguments against cigarettes in the legislative halls of the States. I hope you will consider this carefully and appreciate my side of the question. It would please me very much to know that a change had been made. 

Affectionately, your father,

        [W. Duke]

In this letter, you can see that James Buchanan Duke had some morals - at least guided by a reverend and his Christian faith.  He understands the impact these forms of advertisements have on young man and womanhood.  

But morals don't lead to maximized profits and unfortunately we are stuck in this world where emotion trumps intellect.  And we all know how high on emotion sex is.... what's your favorite sex charged ad?

The Last Year in the 20's

I can't believe so much time has passed since my last post.  I don't know how people blog... they must love to type.  Every time I think of a topic, I get excited but once I'm front of my laptop all the excitement is gone.  

So here I am, the last day before I officially enter the last year in my 20's.  I must be getting old since I actually sat down to participate in a slot tourney....

But what should I type about?  So many things are popping in my head but when my fingers are set to type it, nothing flows.  Maybe I should just do an update of everything that's happening for I LOB.

I've been meaning to be more open on this blog just because I need a "release."  I hit rock bottom July 2012 after my mom fell ill.  Now that I'm getting better things are really picking up for the company I've been trying to start since September 2011.  

It's March 2013 so a lot of time passed since the initial idea.  I wanted the company to be called Savee (save + savvy) but now it's I LOB.  I LOB stands for Independent Locally-Owned Business.  As you can see I love to pun words because its.... fun.

We went from a team of 5 to 3.  The two that stayed are my girlfriend B and bestfriend J.  I believe we are on to something meaningful.  People I talk business with often ask:

How are you going to make money?

My response:

blank stare - well we have a mobile tech (J) 

The reason I can't answer how we're going to make money is because this company was built on doing social good.  I've already lived the high life - bought dream car, not so dreamy home and splurged - but now that it's been 2 years since I made legit income, I don't really care about making money.

Sure we need to be sustainable... I'm not worried.

Why?

Once we submitted our paperwork to Sacramento, I told the team that I have no excuse but to start approaching business owners.  So the first business owner we needed to connect with is a printer.  We needed business cards but one way we are planning to help I LOBs is by providing them with signage.

Of course we are targeting print shop owners who are socially responsible and are proud to be locally-owned.  I targeted two in Dublin/Pleasanton but got no interest - not sure if it's racial, or I look young and therefore a person not to take serious.  Then I visited one in Hayward near B's house.  It turns out the owner is Filipino... Jackpot right?

I walk in and the guy tells me that it's his son that handles business card inquiries.  Well his son isn't around, so I ask him when he will be:

Next week.

That was that....

The 5th owner I approached is random because I was visiting my sister in Union City.  I did some Yelp searches - based on location - and found 4 different print shops.  Somehow I decided to call Action Litho.  The owner himself picked up and told me to come over and swing by.  It turns out the address on Yelp is for correspondence only so I'm glad I picked up the habit of calling before going.

When I arrive at the address it's a residential area.  So I'm confused as hell... but then Warren Grayson the owner of Action Litho opens his door and welcomes me in.  It turns out he is in transition - moving to a new facility closer to home in Hayard.

Long story short - B, J and I got free business cards and have access to an owner who understands what we're about to do.  Warren is now an asset we have and together we'll be making positive change in the Bay Area.

There's more to update but this post got way too long.  

 

Origins

Happy Saturday!  Here's to new beginnings....

I've always wanted a blog to track everything going through my mind and happening in my life.  So what push me to finally set up my blogger?  I just finished taking advantage of $975 worth of credit/debit card promotions and I need space on the internet to track these sort of things: