# Cigarette brands that used to be popular, but which are now rare or nonexistent **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 14, 2009, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933 "2009-07-14T02:32:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/101 "2010-08-31T15:23:22Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > Anyone remember [Eve cigarettes](http://www.unionroom.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/eve_cigarettes.jpg), with the psychedelic curly-ques. My aunt used to smoke those. I remember once when her boyfriend was out of his usual smokes, she gave him one and he giggled as if smoking a cigarette with bit of a floral pattern on the paper would make him gay or something. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/102 "2010-08-31T15:32:51Z")
Bull Durham Old Gold Maverick Salem Doral Oasis Newport Max Virginia Slims Eve Capri Lark Dunhill Viceroy Tareton ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/103 "2010-08-31T21:04:12Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Bull Durham > Old Gold > Maverick > Salem > Doral > Oasis > Newport > Max > Virginia Slims > Eve > Capri > Lark > Dunhill > Viceroy > Tareton Most of these are still available at the local convenience market. Salem, Newport and Virginia Slims are actually still fairly popular brands. I see the ads for Maverick and Doral at the discount tobacco place all of the time and occasionally buy a pack of Dunhills there. They also carry Capri and Viceroy. I haven’t seen the rest for a while though. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/104 "2010-08-31T21:48:08Z")
> [@Savannah](#): > > I remember my mother smoking Craven A, and some other brand with a black cat. It was probably called something like Black Cat. 🙂 But this would have been in the early or mid 70s, and memory is hazy. You’re Canadian, as I recall. Yes, they were indeed Black Cats, which (if memory serves) came in a blue or gold pack, depending on whether they were plain- or filter-tipped. An English brand originally, Black Cats were made in Canada by Rock City Tobacco, which still makes Number 7 cigarettes. Interestingly, even though Black Cat cigarettes haven’t been made in ages, the picture of its black cat survived on packages of Number 7s until rather recently. Other rare or no-longer-existent popular Canadian brands would include Belvedere, Mark Ten, and Sportsman. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/105 "2010-09-01T03:27:14Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > A whle back, I saw some commercials on youtube for a brand of cigarettes called “Spud”. Really. I thought that was such a stupid name for a cigarette, but apparently up until the 1960s it was one of the nation’s most popular cigarette brands. Today, it’s extinct. Spud was the first menthol cigarette, invented by accident in 1924 when [Spud Hughes](http://goodhealth.freeservers.com/SPUD1.html), a young asthma sufferer, stored cigs in a can of menthol crystals and found they gave a cooling and pleasant smoke. He named the brand after himself, but it stuck after he sold the patent. Despite the incongruous potatoey moniker, Spuds were a hit, inspiring Brown & Williamson to put Kools on the market in 1932. Spuds were sold till 1963. ---
**Author:** ![hellpaso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@hellpaso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellpaso)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/106 "2010-09-01T03:27:59Z")
I used to smoke Vantage, More Lights, Merit, and GPCs. Woo-hoo! Been off 'em since May 2009! Anybody remember “Ritz”, designed by YSL back in the mid-80s? I remember they had a special “satin” filter. I think those were the first ones I started smoking. (had to look cool, LOL). ---
**Author:** ![Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fried_Dough_Ho)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/107 "2010-09-01T03:35:23Z")
My mother smoked Lucky Strike and my father smoked Salem. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/108 "2010-09-01T04:49:39Z")
> [@mjack123](#): > > Kent, Tareyton, Lark, True and Old Golds are all still around, but hardly anyone smokes them anymore. Most places no longer stock these brands, and you really have to search for them. There are two convenience stores in my area that have the “full rack” cigarette selection, which means pretty much every brand still on the market and I’ve seen the above brands on the racks, but most stores now only stock the most popular brands such as Marlboro, Camel, etc. > > Benson & Hedges was a popular brand in the 1980s but it’s another brand you hardly see anymore. A lot of women smoked these back then, but if they didn’t quit they went to Marlboro Lights. > > Parliaments are very popular and you can find them anywhere. In my area, they’re second only to Marlboro Lights in popularity among younger smokers. > > Pall Mall and L&M are now “budget brands” and they both taste terrible. > > Personally, every smoker I know (and there are a lot) only smoke the following: Marlboro, Camel, Parliament, American Spirits and (ugh!) Newport. I think the only remaining customers for those old-school brands are a very small group of older people. Wow. I’d really like to pick up a pack of True Blue 100s for my mom. She smoked before she got pregnant with me, quit cold turkey at that point, and was smoke-free till my dad died when I was 28. She started smoking again in her grief, and she’s been talking about wanting to quit again ever since. I’d kinda like to get her a pack of the kind that she and dad used to smoke if she will try to make it the last cigs she’ll ever smoke, however long it takes her to get to that point. ---
**Author:** ![ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ComeToTheDarkSideWeHaveCookies)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/109 "2010-09-01T04:55:41Z")
NETA sorry for the regurgitation of my previous post. I know I’d posted, but forgot what I’d said. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/110 "2010-09-01T05:30:31Z")
> [@whole\_bean](#): > > > [@whole\_bean](#): > > > > so you’re saying Mr. Jimmy looked pretty ill > > anyone? It’s a lyric from a Stone’s song, I forget which one. Nice follow up. I see others have added lyrics. It’s “You can’t always get what you want.” Like discontinued cigarettes. ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/111 "2010-09-02T07:21:03Z")
Nobody in my family has ever smoked. My parents were (are) really against it. This said, mom would get Women’s Day magazines all the time. I remember how glamourous the women looked: Virginia Slims ( I’d spend so much time looking at the catalog of cool things), Capri (she’s going to Capri and she’s never coming back!) and Eve. I recall Joe Camel\* well too but he was not remotely as cool as the women. All of that advertising “worked” on me in that I remember the products but never used. Until this thread I never understood the blackeye ads.As a little kid it never occurred to me it was supposed to be a bruised eye. To me it was like the black lines football players used. \*I also recall a beer (pabst?)that had a huge black and white bear as a mascot. ---
**Author:** ![Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@Shinna\_Minna\_Ma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shinna_Minna_Ma)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/112 "2010-09-02T09:14:45Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > BTW, Camels are not sold in the Middle East. Sure they are. I went to buy milk this morning, and there were several brands of Camels in the rack with everything else. –SMM ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/113 "2010-09-02T12:29:53Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > Lucky Strike- > “Be Happy, Go Lucky- It’s Light Up Time!” > “LSMFT- Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco!” The joke when I was growing up was that “LSMFT” stood for “Loose Straps Mean Flappy Tits” ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/114 "2010-09-02T13:04:41Z")
I see young people smoking Lucky Strikes all the time at Rockabilly shows. It is the only acceptable brand to roll up into a white t-shirt sleeve. ---
**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/115 "2010-09-02T21:49:12Z")
Benson and Hedges used to have about 20 different varieties - don’t know if they still do. I would get cigs for my boss since I was always bumming and ordering them was practically a memory exercise - B&H light menthol 100’s in the hard pack. If you couldn’t make all the way through without taking a breath, you knew you’d been smoking too much. This probably doesn’t count, but I also used to like Drum tobacco, but I think they’re still around and still popular with the art f\*g/douche bag crowd. ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/116 "2010-09-03T23:16:33Z")
I remember when I was a boy my dad smoked Cameo. While he still smokes, I don’t see him with a cigarette much any more (either he doesn’t smoke nearly as often, or it may be because I don’t live at home any more) but I haven’t seen them in stores for quite a while (about the time I left home). I assumed that they went out of business and he’s smoking something else, but Google led me to [Cameo’s entry](http://www.cigarettespedia.com/index.php/BrandCameo) on Cigarettespedia (:eek:. Yes, Virginia (Slims), there’s a Wiki for everything) telling me that they are still produced for the Canadian (and S. African) market. (I have vivid memories of when I was around 12 years old helping my dad roll his cigarettes. I had great fun with it too! :eek: (and no, I have never had a cigarette in my life). ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/117 "2010-09-04T01:07:20Z")
> [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](#): > > I also recall a beer (pabst?)that had a huge black and white bear as a mascot. That would be [Hamm’s](http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=944&bih=624&q=hamm%27s+bear&gbv=2&aq=1&aqi=g5&aql=&oq=hamm%27s&gs_rfai=), the bear refreshing. Er, beer. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/118 "2010-09-04T01:34:13Z")
Triumphs. They were this odd non-tobacco (I think) cigarette back in the early 70s that I sort of like. Tried them first because I was driving a TR4-A at the time and thought the pack looked cool on the dash. Most people said they would rather smoke cabbage leaves that had been boiled and then dried but my memory says they weren’t that bad. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/119 "2010-09-04T02:51:50Z")
I smoke Picayunes in High School. The guy who married my cousin used to carry them around when someone wanted to bum a smoke off him. He had no takers. I rolled Bugler for a while, seems like I still see cans of it in the store. Sobraine Black Russians apparently are no longer exported to the USA. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2010, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933/120 "2010-09-04T03:15:00Z")
Silk Cut Red, my dad was the only person I ever met who smoked them, then they killed him so he had to quit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cigarette-brands-that-used-to-be-popular-but-which-are-now-rare-or-nonexistent/502933.md?page=7)