ABSTRACT
I do not remember the exact year—possibly it was in the late 1980s—that the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, manufacturer of Camel cigarettes, adopted “Joe Camel” as their emblem. But within a short period of time, the penis/testicle-headed camel had become an inescapable presence on billboards, kiosks, building walls, matchbooks, and the printed page. Habituated as viewers were to the testosterone-saturated imagery of the Marlboro Man, the Camel penis-head provoked controversy only when it was discovered that large numbers of young boys were avid devotees of the emblem, and, therefore, presumed to be at risk of actually smoking Camels.
