Gallaher Tobacco is relaunching its Hamlet Miniatures brand with a
potentially controversial ad campaign that recreates images from the
famous 'Hamlets Moments' series.
The brand, currently sold in packets, is undergoing a re-vamp, and will
be sold in tins from the New Year to give it a classier feel and enable
it to compete more directly with Henri Winterman's-owned Cafe Creme.
Press and poster ads, which break this weekend, show three dwarves in a
toilet laughing at themselves as they are too short to reach the
urinals.
One of them, who is completely relaxed, smokes a Hamlet Miniature,
accompanied by the strapline 'Spread a little happiness'.
Gallaher marketing controller Lesley Stears said: "This advertising
takes the well-known Hamlet 'moment' and presents it in a fresh and
contemporary way, which is what we are doing with the product and its
packaging."
Stears emphasised that the ad had been researched among people with
dwarfism, in order to ensure that it did not cause offence.