Remember When a Smoking Camel was Scary? — Beth Collier Communication, Creativity & Leadership Strategist

I can still picture those ads with Joe.

Looking debonair in a tux. Effortlessly cool on a sports car or a sailboat, or a motorcycle.

Getting the babes.

And telling kids we could be cool like him, if we smoked Camel cigarettes.

Joe Camel was to cigarettes what Mickey Mouse was to Disney.

But in the late 1990s, Joe Camel disappeared, as society realized that maybe it wasn’t great for kids to grow up thinking that smoking was cool.

By then the world was acknowledging the dangers of nicotine, and how smoking led to illness and death more often than a James Bond lifestyle.

And there seemed to be agreement that kids were impressionable, and kids liked cartoons, so maybe we should be careful what kind of cartoon images we promoted.

Oh what simpler times those were!

Now, as the mother of two young children, I only wish Joe Camel was my greatest concern.

I see my children’s innocence with a flashing expiration date, one that expires at a much earlier age than my generation’s did.

I grew up doing tornado drills in school, learning how to duck and cover and protect myself from natural disasters.

Now my nieces and nephews in the US learn how to protect themselves if someone comes into their school with a gun.

And last week, newly unredacted portions of an ongoing lawsuit against Meta’s Facebook and Instagram showed us something else our kids are up against.

The new legal filing alleged that in 2021, an internal company estimate found as many as 100,000 children every day received sexual harassment, such as pictures of adult genitalia, on Meta’s platforms.

That’s right – 100,000 children.

EVERY DAY.

There are about 100,000 students in Manchester, England. Texas A&M has close to that amount.

Imagine if every single student in Manchester or Texas got a dick pic today.

Now imagine if instead of being young adults, those students were 12 or 13 years old.

Or younger.

The smoking cartoon camel doesn’t seem so scary now, does he?

But no one wants to harm children. Right?

Even people on opposite ends of the political spectrum can agree on that.

Every US election cycle I can remember offered a crop of campaign ads shouting the same sentiment — “THINK OF THE CHILDREN!”

If Meta knew, they would take action, right?

They would lean in.

Wouldn’t they?

The lawsuit against Meta includes evidence from an internal chat from 2020 where one Meta employee had heard about child grooming on TikTok.

They asked a colleague what they were doing about the issue at Meta.

“Somewhere between zero and negligible,” the colleague responded.
“Child safety is an explicit non-goal this half.”

Sorry…a non-goal?

Child safety is not a trend like Ugg boots or futons. I would expect child safety to be a given – in any part of the year.

Especially as Meta’s own research showed that 13 percent of Messenger users were kids ages 6-10.

To put that in perspective, that means these kids could see hard-core pornography before they’ve lost a tooth or learned to ride a bike.

And worst of all, Meta knows that people are targeting children on their platforms – and at the same time they are working to increase their reach with children.

There is money to be made, so who cares if little Timmy or Jenny gets scared or upset about what they see?

Sadly, Meta employees, including whistleblower Frances Haugen, rang the alarm years ago.

And people like Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg (who stepped down as COO in 2022) had the money, the influence, and the power to do something then.

But will Meta now take the initiative to make their platforms safer — or spend a fortune on lawyers and lobbyists to make this go away?

Meta’s own website lists “focus on long-term impact” as one of their six core values. It’s next to “build awesome things” that are awe-inspiring.

How should a company respond if they know their product helps child predators and harms children?

Statements like “move fast, break things” sounds like cool techbro lingo, but as a society are we OK if the thing we’re breaking is children?

We did something about this smooth character.

What will will do about this one?

If you can stomach it, you can read the complaint filed by New Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office online, but be warned it features redacted images of child sex exploitation and other sexually explicit images.

And one can only imagine how bad the unredacted sections must be!

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Beth Collier loves writing, pop culture, and people who genuinely care about others.

She also loves helping companies, leaders, and teams improve their communication (and creativity and leadership) through consulting, coaching, and workshops.

Her clients benefit from Beth’s global corporate experience, Midwestern practicality and enthusiasm, and an endless supply of pop culture references.

To find out how Beth can help you become a more confident, creative, and compelling leader – or improve communication in your company – visit www.beth-collier.com or drop her a line at beth@beth-collier.com

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