Estudos sobre a embalagem de cigarro no Brasil: criações, imposições e adaptações

Abstract

Cigarette is an element without parallel inside the modern society. It does not fit in any category of consumer goods: it s not drug, it s not food, it s not beverage, it s not clothing and it s not entertainment, neither an enjoyment. It s a drug that addicts and kills, even so it s not sold under control (the only control is regarding to the consumer s age); it s not forbidden, however advertise cigarette is; the manufacturers are not arrested, nevertheless themselves refuse to talk about their products; and the consumers are not sent to treatment clinics although they are considered as drug addicts. Paradoxically, the lawyers of the cigarettes manufacturers earn fortunes year after year to defend their clients against the prosecutions brought by consumers. In other words, to merely guarantee the commercialization of something that is not prohibited by law. For all these facts, it was not possible, after several tentatives, find someone related to these industries who doesn t matter to talk about the strategies created to design the packs and, more than that, the strategies to attract and addict new consumers. This work was done during two years, through observation researches and analyses of the changes occurred within a period that embraces the entrance of the manufactured cigarettes in Brazil until the current days. Thus, it was established a corpus of the analyses, basically composed of four cigarette labels, which presence at the tobacco market is detached because of the high levels of sales. They are: Free, Carlton, Hollywood and Derby all of them belong to Souza Cruz. As the bibliography on this subject is rare, were used as authors those specific of design, communication and semiotic. As a semiotic object, the package of cigarettes is so well elaborated that it has signs absolutely different from its real content. Even with the interventions of the Federal Government, the package communicates sensations which, in no way, we can relate to the real effects of the cigarettes, as glamour, status, elegance, pleasure, sports, daring and youthfulness. This work allowed concluding, through analyses of the visual composition and the communication elements presented in the packages, the clear commercial objective that the packages have to seduce and attract cigarettes consumers.