Camel Cigarettes (USA)

From TheDieline.com:

A thorough analysis of the re-design plus a lively forum of comments. Sample comment: “The old design was good enough to kill countless thousands of RJ Reynold’s most dedicated customers...why would they feel like anything needed fixing?”

No design firms are mentioned in the article, so presumably, this was an in-house project at R.J. Reynolds. A link to the article is here: The Camel’s New Clothes.

Question: if a camel is a horse designed by committee, what do you call the redesign?

Comments:

"It certainly does find a way to make the surgeon general's warning attractive..."

"I see everyone's point about sugar candy and alcohol. I just see tobacco as being a bit more touchy. Bars are banning cigarettes but they aren't banning candy and beer. But this is a design blog so i do think the topic should be design. But, WOW you guys just got all fired up about it. All in all I love the design and I'm sure someone put a lot of heart into it. Does anyone know who designed it?"

"Dear Dan,

Were you the brains behind this design? You are really defensive about it. I actually really like the design (even though I wish I were commenting on herbal tea or something). The type treatment/device at the bottom is really nice. It reminds of an antique ticket. I also like how the camel has become more iconic in the circle and he is backed with white. In fact the overall injection of white on this pack really makes everything pop. Even the logo is much bolder now.
As products I really don't think you can compare tobacco to candy. If I had four pieces of a chocolate bar a day I think i could run that off. If I had 4 four cigarettes a day I don't think I could even run at all. Cigarettes are BAD. The design is good. I'm glad the packaging design is getting all this recognition but I really hope it doesn't help the product sell more :("

Year: 2008
Source: The Dieline.com: The Package Design Blog