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[[File:1965tareytonad.jpg|right|thumb|250px|A Tareyton magazine advertisement from 1965. In the famous campaign, people from all walks of life showed off black eyes to demonstrate their willingness to "fight" instead of "switch" from the Tareyton brand.]]
"'''Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch!'''" is a [[slogan]] that appeared in [[magazine]], [[newspaper]], and [[television]] [[advertising|advertisement]]s for [[Tareyton]] [[cigarette]]s from 1963 until 1981. It was the [[American Tobacco Company|American Tobacco Company's]] most visible advertising campaign in the 1960s and 1970s.{{according to whom|date=September 2021}}

==Beginnings==
The slogan was created by [[James Jordan (publicist)|James Jordan]] of the [[BBDO]] [[advertising agency]].<ref>{{cite web|title='60s and '70s Tareyton ads|url=http://www.wclynx.com/burntofferings/adsfightswitch.html|work=The Unswitchables|publisher=Burnt Offerings|access-date=2006-08-02 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060314131848/http://www.wclynx.com/burntofferings/adsfightswitch.html |archive-date = March 14, 2006}}</ref> The first print advertisement appeared in ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine on October 11, 1963.<ref>{{cite web|title=Campaign ad|url=http://www.vintageadsandstuff.com/viewtareyton4.jpeg|work=Vintage and stuff|publisher=Vintage&stuff.com|access-date=2006-08-02}}</ref> The advertisements would appear solely in print between 1963 and 1966. In 1966, the first television advertisements with the slogan aired.{{citation needed|date=October 2014}}

The target of the campaign was to create a sense of loyalty amongst Tareyton smokers. The models were made to look as though they each had a [[black eye]], presumably earned in battles with smokers of other cigarettes.<ref>{{cite news|title=James J. Jordan, advertising sloganeer, dies at 73|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/06/business/media/06JORD.html?ex=1391490000&en=8d508d0a44fa374d&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND|work=New Your Times|publisher=NYTimes.com|access-date=2006-08-02 | first=Stuart | last=Elliott | date=2004-02-06 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060507231053/http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/06/business/media/06JORD.html?ex=1391490000&amp;en=8d508d0a44fa374d&amp;ei=5007&amp;partner=USERLAND| archive-date=2006-05-07 | url-status=dead }}</ref>

The slogan received grammar criticism from some quarters, which claimed correct usage should be "we" as the subject pronoun rather than "us", normally an object pronoun.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Grammar-and-ads-an-uneasy-marriage-9173643.php|title=Grammar and ads - an uneasy marriage|date=19 August 2016}}</ref>

==Television advertisements==
Each commercial began with the protagonist doing something defiant; in one commercial, an old woman rocked sternly in her chair on her porch while the rest of her development was being razed to make room for a [[condominium]]). The protagonist, usually showing only their side profile to the camera, would say "Us Tareyton smokers would rather ''fight'' than ''switch!''".  Then viewers would see the whole face, with the black eye implying willingness to fight for what they believed in, whether it was a tough decision or their choice to smoke Tareyton cigarettes. In the aforementioned example, the old woman's house remained where it was, although the condominium was built alarmingly close to her property. Her son came to visit her, and his own black eye implied he was a Tareyton smoker as well.<ref>{{cite web|title=Tareyton campaign spot|url=http://www.tvparty.com/xmas4/tareyton1.ram|work=Tareyton Advertisement (1968)|publisher=TVparty.com|access-date=2006-08-02}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=August 2017}}

==Later years==
[[File:Tareyton white.jpg|left|thumb|A Tareyton magazine advertisement from 1980. The new ''Light'' version showed the models wearing white makeup instead of black.]]

The advertising campaign fuelled sales robust enough to put Tareyton sales in the Top 10 American cigarette brands in the mid to late 1960s.<ref>{{cite web|title=Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation|url=http://business.enotes.com/marketing-campaign/brown-williamson-tobacco-corporation|work=Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch Campaign|publisher=Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns|access-date=2006-08-02}}</ref> The brand declined to thirteenth place when the slogan waned in 1979.<ref>{{cite web|title=History of Tobacco Corporation|url=http://www.historian.org/tobacco4.htm
|work=The Historian|publisher=History Net|access-date=2006-08-02}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=August 2017}}

In 1971, Tareyton's television jingles ended when radio and television advertisements for tobacco products were banned from American broadcasting stations. The slogan continued to be used in magazines and newspapers. In 1975, the slogan was used to advertise for the Tareyton "100".<ref>{{cite web|title=Tareyton 100 campaign ad|url=http://brandhot.de/zigaretten/us-tareyton-smokers-would-rather-fight-than-switch/1/|work=Tareyton Advertisement (1975)|publisher=brandhot.de|access-date=2009-02-10}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=August 2017}}

In 1976, the American Tobacco Company introduced Tareyton Light cigarettes. In the new advertisements, men and women appeared with "white eyes", and the slogan was adjusted to "Us Tareyton smokers would rather ''light'' than ''fight!''" The two slogans would be used to sell the two separate variations until 1981, when market value declined.{{citation needed|date=October 2014}}

This slogan was the final one used for the Tareyton brand. Declining sales led to an end of advertising the brand.{{citation needed|date=October 2014}}

==Cultural impact==
{{synthesis|date=August 2017}}
The then-fresh slogan was adopted by supporters of [[Barry Goldwater]] during the [[1964 United States presidential election|1964 campaign for the presidency]]. Goldwater appeared to have the nomination in hand as the primary season closed, but supporters of the moderate Republican [[William Scranton]] tried to mount a "Draft Scranton" reply. "Goldwater Girls" (mostly adult women) were seen at Scranton events wearing bandages and sporting signs saying "We'd rather fight than switch!".<ref>{{cite book|title=Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus
|author=Rick Perlstein
|author-link=Rick Perlstein
|year=2002}}</ref>

A 1964 single released on the [[Camp Records]] label parodied the slogan with the song "I'd Rather Fight Than Swish," using the slang term [[Swish (slang)|swish]], meaning to behave effeminately.<ref>{{Citation
  | last = Weinberg
  | first = Jonathan
  | title = Male desire: the homoerotic in American art
  | publisher = H.N. Abrams 
  | year = 2004
  | page = 135
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KoJTAAAAMAAJ&q=%22fight+than+swish%22
  | isbn = 978-0-8109-5894-4}}
</ref>

The advertising campaign is [[parody|parodied]] in ''[[The Last of the Secret Agents?]]'' when [[Marty Allen]] tires of Zoltan Schubach's ([[Theo Marcuse]]) threat on [[closed-circuit television]] and changes the [[television channel|channel]] to one featuring a [[cowboy]] representing the [[Marlboro Man]] turning to the camera with a [[Black eye|black right eye]] and saying "I'd rather switch than fight."

The June 1964 ''[[Mad (magazine)|Mad]]'' magazine parodied the slogan by twisting it into "Us Cigarette-Makers will fight rather than quit!" regarding reports linking smoking to cancer and the subsequent PR campaign to make their own reports, with editor [[Al Feldstein]] as an executive with a black eye. Feldstein later said the spoof was his personal favorite. <ref>{{cite book |last=Shayne |first=David |date=2005 |title=MADvertising |location=New York |publisher= Watson-Guptill Publications |page=195 |isbn=0-8230-3081-4}}</ref>

Thomas "TNT" Todd, a civil rights activist, parodied the slogan to make a point regarding the [[Vietnam War]] in a 1967 speech. Todd was quoted as saying, "...Yet our best trained, best educated, best equipped, best prepared troops refuse to fight! Matter of fact, it's safe to say that they would rather ''switch'' than ''fight!''" The audio clip of his speech was later used as the prelude to the 1989 [[Public Enemy (band)|Public Enemy]] single "[[Fight the Power (Public Enemy song)|Fight the Power]]."<ref>{{cite news|last=Kalamka|first=Juba|author-link=Juba Kalamka|title=Race Records|publisher=Color Lines|url=http://www.colorlines.com/article.php?ID=211|date=May–June 2007|access-date=2008-06-16}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=August 2017}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Advertising campaigns]]
[[Category:American advertising slogans]]
[[Category:1963 neologisms]]
[[Category:American television commercials]]
[[Category:Tobacco advertising]]
[[Category:1960s television commercials]]