While Shane Van Boening, Earl Strickland and Johnny Archer are unquestionably some of the world’s best contemporary men’s US billiards professionals, there is another American player who is likely the more popular household name.
Joe Camel.
Yes, RJ Reynolds’ famous ungulate, the 10-year mascot for Camel cigarettes, was a ubiquitous pool player in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Even if he never sank his shot.
Since the first World War, billiards has been a mainstay of print advertising, lending its allure and cue stick coolness to products around the world, from tobacco and alcohol (of course) to watches and nail polish. In fact, I’ve identified almost 150 print advertisements that use billiards to sell non-billiards related products.
But, what makes for a compelling billiards-themed ad?
To answer that question, Chet Moss, an advertising creative director (and, ok, my uncle) with decades of experience, joins me in selecting and discussing some of our favorites.
Jason Moss: Chet, these billiards ads are all over the place, from Australia to South Africa. Some are more than a century old. Did any themes jump out at you?
Chet Moss: Definitely. They all come down to one key letter: an “S.” Or, more specifically, “The 3 S’s of Billiards Advertising.”
Smoking. Seducing. Savoring. (Which, depending on the type of alcoholic drink one is savoring, also includes swallowing, swigging, sipping, slurping, swilling, slugging, scarfing, and sloshing, Yes, still all S.) Advertising opting to use billiards as the setting has a love affair with people who smoke, who want sex, and who like to drink. Chalk it up to what some admen/adwomen throughout the ages simply think is cool.
Jason: I’ll drink to that. Those S’s were prominent even in the oldest ads I could find, such as a 1914 ad for Fehr’s F.F.X.L., which associated cold beer with a good cue and cool nerves. Tell me about a couple that really snared your interest.
Chet: Well, from a savoring angle, I like the Beefeater Gin ad (1997), “If you’re too tired to go out tonight, etc.” It challenges the reader to get off the couch and go break a rack. Billiards, a martini, a shot in play all add up to living a little… and not letting time escape you. I raise a glass to the copywriter. Sorry that I can’t be as supportive to the smoking ones, as much for the idea of hawking bones as the quality of the work itself. The ad for Gitanes (1970s) is at least visually clever: table as ashtray, cue as cigarette. You don’t need any copy (beyond the warnings): the image just makes the instant association and it avoids showing beautiful people having the time of their lives as they smoke.
Jason: I’m anti-tobacco as well, but I have to give a shout-out to Camel’s ad (1949), featuring Willie Hoppe and Willie Mosconi, two of the greatest billiards players of all time. Not sure the “Boy Wonder” meeting the “Old Master” is suggestive, but I’m hooked. I also like the Portuguese ad (2000) for Sagres Beer. Creating a 15 ball rack of foamy beer heads is a visually sharp way to differentiate the darkness of Sagres.
But, let me go back to the 3 S’s. Feels like an easy bank shot to use billiards to sell cigs and liquor, no?
Chet: The convo exchange between Mosconi and Hoppe is fun. Certainly not enough to give them one single case of throat irritation! Ok, I’ll filter remaining cig commentary. But si to Sagres. Again, the visual play is like Gitanes. Arresting ad visuals are frequently a misdirection or a kind of double entendre of images.
Cigarette and alcohol ads don’t have a monopoly on seduction. The glistening car bodies take sex from 0 to 60. Clothing, hair, jewelry, cosmetics and even food advertising is seductive and savorous in many ways.
Jason: I’m glad you mentioned clothing. That’s an industry I hadn’t realized was so beholden to the baize in their advertising. While hardly seductive, the Imperial Underwear Company was astute to recognize in their ad (1914) my need for comfort in “every position and posture,” including making those hard-to-reach, across-the-table billiards shots. And, at least since the 1960s, Maidenform has been out to prove that billiards and bras make for a breath-taking combo (though I’m pretty sure none of my recent opponents were clad only in lingerie).
Chet: I’ve done ads for the ‘fashion’ category and comfort is a big deal. But way less than style. Which is where billiards comes in. It’s hard not to think of the game (or visualize it) without some finesse, sophistication, and flair (playing in your Maidenforms qualifies for flair, kind of a bare flair).
Jason: I’m fascinated that so many of the clothing ads connect billiards with upscale fashion. Look at the ads for Robert Wicks formalwear (1920s), Greenwood Furs (1959), or Wolsey (1980s). Billiards is associated with formality, gentility, elegance. That’s a far cry from the modern billiards barroom image, though I ascribe some of the difference to the highbrow treatment of snooker in the UK compared to the lowbrow treatment of pool in the US.
Lest I get out my billiards bullhorn, let’s move off sex and seduction. Tell me about some of the more surprising billiards ads.
Chet: There is a MasterCard ad (2001) that celebrates the connectivity of friends in the comfort of a now-converted den, the billiards table a new (priceless) focus for time well-spent. The Grand Optical curved stick is a stopper. Eye-catching, or eye-bending. Clearly this shot is going nowhere except to the nearest store for some new specs. Sometimes advertising is just gratuitously bizarre but I liked the simple graphicness of this. At the least, I looked at it, which is more than half the battle.
The Equinox ad (2013) is like Maidenform, only more dressed. But the message of dexterity plays well for both getting fit at the gym and sinking a carom into the corner pocket. Remind me about the rules again of having at least one foot on the floor. Oh those ad folks, taking license with the sanctity of the game! That’s dexterity.
Jason: For that shot, she might do well to don the Imperial Underwear I mentioned earlier. On a separate note, I was particularly partial to the billiards ads that positioned the attainment of the home billiards table as a milestone in life, a door to utopia. For example, the Chilean ad (2016) for Bauker power tools that equates assembling a billiards table with building one’s freedom. Even better, the Brazilian bank Sicredi has a wonderfully light-hearted cartoon ad (2014) in which a smiling customer has secured his financial credit for his new pool table, now he just needs his wife’s approval.
Chet: The Bauker ad is both clever and frightening. Not because of the odd depiction of people as robots or mannequins but because it immediately reminded me of putting together anything from Ikea. (Ah, but notice how they snuck a beer bottle into the schematic. There goes that little booze association again.) Back once more to the fashion world. I’m curious about your take on the Italian Fabi “Watch your step” ad (2004). I don’t think I saw this episode on Law and Order, SBV, Special Billiards Victims.
Jason: Watch my step? I think I better watch my opponent. Actually, it gives me flashbacks of the “Dead Rails” billiards episode (2014) from CSI.
So, final question: who wins the Clio Award for most unusual (or unexpected) use of billiards in an advertisement? My vote is the ad for Milk-Rite’s Ultraliner TLC 2000, known for its ultimate milking and gentle cow comfort. This is a whole new take on the concept of “cow pooling.”
Chet: An udderly good choice, incomprehensible as the relationship to billiards may be. I’m going with the Beerka Crunchy Bread Snack ad (2007). A few reasons: 1) the jest (not joust) of the headline; 2) the design which avoids the expected trap of green felt tables, cue balls, sticks, etc; and 3) the surprising, inverted storyline: pool is for drinking beer, not drinking beer while you’re playing pool. The element of surprise is a big winner in an ad.
Jason: Chet, thanks for joining me. As for the titular question, yes, billiards can indeed help sell cat food. Just ask Purina, makers of Friskies, who put two felines on a pool table in a 2004 ad. At least, I hope they succeeded in selling cat food because it’s going to cost a pretty penny to re-felt that table once the cats are done with it.
