Gudang Garam International

Pria Punya Selera, that phrase is maybe one of the most memorable phrases of cigarette ads. Pria Punya Selera, translated into Men Got Taste, is a tagline of Gudang Garam International Brand.

It is a concise phrase that is straight to the point to refer to the masculinity concept. That phrase seems to directly point to the male smokers that only men who got the real taste that dare to smoke Gudang Garam International cigarette.

Gudang Garam International Clove Cigarette Kretek

Gudang Garam International is a kretek cigarette brand from Gudang Garam Tobacco Company. It is Indonesia original kretek cigarette that was launched on 3 November 1979 in Kediri, East Java.

This machine-rolled kretek cigarette still exists as the smoker’s choice for its full flavor. Gudang Garam International is made of high-quality tobacco leaves and clove it will serve you the full unique flavor of Gudang Garam.

Even though most Indonesian cigarettes have sweeter flavor compared to American cigarettes.

Gudang Garam International is not too sweet and has a savory aroma that enhances its original flavor.

The oldest archive of Gudang Garam International Ad that can be found comes from 1990. At that time, cigarette ads can still portray the image of the product and the smoking activity.

“Pria Punya Selera” (Men Got Taste) tagline states uniquely in its own way portraying a male character who is bold and brings out the image of real masculinity.

The additional caption in the bottom is translated into: “My coffee’s thick, my music’s loud, my cigarette’s great, Gudang Garam Filter”.

By seeing this ad, the viewer shall expect that this is the most masculine cigarette. Is it really just for men? Now, it quite irrelevant to see that today gender equality is being encouraged.

Is Gudang Garam International Really Masculine?

As one of Gudang Garam fans, I have tasted most of its cigarette brand. Generally, all variant of Gudang Garam has one similar taste that distinguishes them from other manufacturer’s brands.

For me personally, the most similar to Gudang Garam International is Gudang Garam Signature and Gudang Garam Surya.

Because Gudang Garam Signature is quite newly launched compared to Gudang Garam Surya, let’s take a look Gudang Garam Surya.

Compared to Gudang Garam International, Gudang Garam Surya is sweeter. Both of them are full flavor cigarettes that are rich with taste and aroma.

The interesting question would be, “Is Gudang Garam Surya portrays itself as a masculine cigarette brand?”.

Well, what can be inferred from the advertisement below is: maybe no. on the ad below, which comes from the past, is portraying a female cigarette without any gender suggestive tagline.

Moreover, we all can see footage of a vintage ad found on youtube, female models are portrayed to be smoking there.