The Camel cigarette advertisement has been one of the most notorious of the old cigarette ad campaigns and remains so to some degree today. Camel cigarette ads have a very long history in the cigarette industry, and they stretch back to before the initial creation of the Camel cigarette brand in 1913. Before the Camel cigarette brand was officially released the ads started with the slogan "The Camels are coming"; this became the predecessor of a new marketing style for upcoming products that has been used successfully in various situations, including army recruitment, throughout the twentieth century and onwards.

Camel cigarettes advertisements during the golden age of cigarette advertising during the mid twentieth century have been somewhat infamous for their hidden images. The camel that is depicted in advertisement for Camel cigarettes and on the front of the Camel cigarette packs (which was originally based on "Joe Camel", a camel that would be taken to towns as part of the ground based promotion of the brand) was drawn in a pictorial form that when analyzed closely appeared to include a naked erect man as a subliminal image. Camel cigarettes ads have since changed the image to respond to the complaints that have been made against them, and on many Camel cigarette ad sources since then the camel image on the cover of Camel cigarettes has become a solid color outline or the drawing style has been somewhat changed.

In the late eighties, Camel cigarette advertising again became somewhat infamous with the production of the Joe Camel cigarette ad. Actually, the character of Joe Camel, a cartoon camel with a physical appearance that many detractors have labeled as overly phallic, was present in Camel cigarette advertisement before the eighties - however he became better known from 1987 when he was chosen as the Camel advertising mascot and featured in Joe Camel cigarette ads. These Camel cigarette advertisements in magazines were decried for the accusation that the new Camel cigarette ads were being marketed even more aggressively to children. After a number of legal battles, in 1997 the Camel cigarette magazine advertisements were changed again to a new Camel light cigarette advertising campaign: Camel cigarette advertising today is focused around images of beautiful women and not any particular mascot or character. The path from the earliest print ads to the television and radio advertisements of cigarette advertising's "golden age" to Camel cigarette advertising today has thus been a long and circuitous one.