Before there was TBWA\ Zurich, there was TBWA\ Paris. And the French tobacco monopoly had commissioned the company to launch a new cigarette in France. The monopoly had already come up with a name: Flint. And a pack to go with it, with a blue jeans pattern. The reasons for the name Flint are inscrutable. The blue is more understandable. Gauloises are blue. Gitanes are blue. Boyards are blue. Bastos are blue. All successful in their time, so no reason to protest for long. The tobacco monopoly had also thought up a strategy and chosen the red and white Marlboro as its enemy. If you were going to have an enemy, then it would be the biggest brand in the world. The tobacco monopoly, because it was French, brought the state-imposed bravura to the task.
We actually liked all of that. both status symbols, the switzerland rcs data cowboy and the playboy. On the one hand with films by Alan Parker - there was hardly a better director at the time. And with photos by Uli Roos - there was no more sensitive black-and-white photography disciple of Cartier-Bresson at the time.
I still like the campaign today. It was successful for a while with young French people. But it was a huge success with an unintended target group: the top management of Philip Morris. Somehow they didn't like the campaign. And so they did something that a dissatisfied target group rarely does: they wanted to stop the advertising.