04-29-2021, 09:04 AM
(04-29-2021, 08:59 AM)fredtoast Wrote: And how could cigarette companies know that menthol would be popular with black people?
It would have been much cheaper and easier to just make a cigarette with black paper to market to the black community if the demand could just be created by marketing.
...I am actually disagreeing with Bel that they were targeted to African Americans on launch. In fact, Kools originally were meant to be a high-class sophisticated brand but was eventually adopted by the African American community.
As to that point, funny enough, they did try other gimmicks after the success of Kools. They came out with a brand called "X" that was literally meant to play on Malcolm X but it bombed badly. There were other attempts to play off the African American tie but when they became too obvious they tended to be rejected.
