Joe Camel was the brilliantly successful advertising campaign used to market Camel Cigarettes manufactured by RJ Reynolds. The Campaign began in 1987 and was unfortunately stopped in 1997.

For the first time this cigarette mascot was introduced by a British artist Nicholas Price in 1974 that was used by a French magazine. Maybe, if there weren't Camel tobacco cigarettes, this mascot disappeared in near time.

In 1987, at 75th anniversary of Camel tobacco "Old Joe's" and this year was year of appearance of legendary Joe Camel. It was an illustrious event. After a few years Joe Camel developed into most recognizable character. It was a real rival of such veteran characters as Mickey Mouse, Fred Flintstone, Barbie or Bugs Bunny. This confirmation was stated as result of survey done by Journal of the American Medical Association.

Who was looked Joe Camel? It was born as a cartoon mascot. As his name suggests, Joe was a camel that was represent with human-looking appearance that used to smoke Camel cigarette, and he was cool in style and often with sunglasses. Often meted representation were playing billiards, or a saxophone, or on the beach, in a nightclub, or just hanging out while looking cool.

Creator of Joe Camel once said in an interview, "I was just trying to make this stupid head have some kind of expression I could change from ad to ad, and I remembered how Sean Connery as James Bond could move his eyebrows so expressively. So I ripped off his eyes and eyebrows and Don Johnson's hair... how I personally feel about being known for this piece of crap that people think is great advertising. It's a pretty shitty piece of art."

With such characteristics mascot of Camel cigarettes was represented in many different sceneries and places, but one thing was common: he was nifty, attractive, stylish and handsome. Examining advertisement illustrated on bills, posters and placards of those times it can be easily observed all this distinctiveness that assured its world eminence.

The Joe Camel character came under fire in the late 1990s as an example of harmful advertising targeted to the young. In 1998 the tobacco industry and the attorneys general of 46 states agreed to ban the use of cartoon characters in tobacco advertising, a practice that many thought had encouraged young people to start smoking.

R.J. Reynolds decided to change mascot of Camel with more "adult" one and on July 10, 1997, Joe Camel campaign was replaced.

Nevertheless, Joe Camel let profound step in history of tobacco advertisement.