Way back (late 50s) when I worked in a drug store there was a non-tabacco smoke called (and I’m not clear on the spelling) Cubebs … were popular in the Boston area at the time. I started on Pall Mall (could steal them from my mother’s pack) … moved on to Chesterfield King (the king that has everything) until they started messing with the pack design … went to a deep maroon pack … then to a nautical themed pack - in yellow/orange - with a sailboat on it. Didn’t look ‘manly’ … so went back to Camel regulars (didn’t have kings at the time) … then in college to English Ovals (probably for the odd factor - they were, as I recall, quite terrible) … over to Benson Hedges … which lasted well into my dotage … then to Marlboro Light (now Gold Pack because they can’t say Light anymore) 100s because they are always on sale CVS. 68 and still smoking away … and no COPD diagnosis … yet. My brother died of cancer a few years back and one of his very last requests was … gimme a smoke. Us old timers are a hardy (and hard headed) breed. Back to facts … in the late 50s when I could do my research … Luckies, Camels and Chesterfields were THE smokes for guys. The women went for the Parliaments, Kents and Pall Malls. Finally … on the LSMFT thing … I think Lucky’s maybe sponsored Milton Berle’s TV show? … we always said it meant Let’s Save Miltie From Taxes. Interesting conversation on a habit that has been attacked mercilessly for MANY many years … and which, if the numbers can be trusted, is making a comeback among the younger set. Gruesome shots of messed up lungs on packs not withstanding. OK, off to the driveway for a smoke … can’t smoke in the house anymore.
…me again … forgot this … don’t think I saw anyone mention the Harley-Davidson cigarette that came out in the mid-90s or so … put out (on a short run I suspect) by Lorillard. A novelty / niche market thing I’m sure. You can see them offered every now and then on eBay. Thanks for the opportunity to wander back in time … even if the thread is old, it was fun thinking about it all. And maybe coughing a little too.
Benson & Hedges are still around, but not sold in many places anymore. B&H were popular back in the 80s, but sales have declined dramatically. Same with Virginia Slims - that was a huge brand back then but not many women smoke those anymore. I wouldn’t be surprised if those two brands were discontinued in the near future.
Unfiltered Lucky Strikes and Pall Malls are still around, but very hard to find outside of smoke shops these days - most stores don’t carry them anymore. I still smoke those occasionally, when I can find them. Again, I think those are two brands that won’t be around much longer.
I don’t think Kent, Tareyton, Vantage, Viceroy or Lark are made anymore - I haven’t seen any of those brands in a store in many years. Kent in particular was a very popular cigarette (especially with women) years ago but it just seemed to disappear. I remember trying each of those brands at one time or another, and wasn’t really impressed by any of them - they were either too weak or had an “off” taste.
Salem used the be the best-selling menthol cigarette for years, but RJR messed with the tobacco blend and packaging back in the late 90s and sales dropped dramatically and never recovered. You really have to search around for Salems now- they’re not sold in many places these days.
I still see True in a few stores, but I haven’t seen anyone smoke that brand in a long, long time. I remember they were like puffing on hot air.
L&M were re-launched a few years ago as a budget brand and they are awful, the original L&M in the red and white pack was taken off the market a long time ago.
Old Golds are still around, I see them at a few convenience stores in my area but hardly anyone smokes them anymore.
Parliament is one old-school brand that is actually more popular today than it was years ago. A lot of younger people smoke them now. Out of all the brands from the past that are gone now or rarely smoked anymore, Parliament has somehow survived and sales have increased - I have no idea why.
I forgot all about More and Eve - those were 120’s marketed to women and I think they’re gone now as well.
And then Marlboro ruined it by coming out with Marlboro 25s, which cost a bit more than a regular 20-pack of Marlboros (which made sense - it would have been kind of stupid to give away 5 extra cigarettes when the product was identical). Some stores thereafter assumed that the Richland 25-pack should cost more as well. I got into quite an argument with my bosses at one store where I worked, because they were charging more for the Richlands, and kept pointing to the Marlboro 25s and saying, “Those cost more than the 20-pack!” My repeatedly pointing out that Richland’s whole marketing gimmick was that they were selling 25 for the price of 20 completely failed to move them.
But let’s see, I bought my first pack of cigarettes in 1981, I think, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pack of Chesterfields anywhere. When I started smoking at age 15, I was determined to smoke the brand I liked best rather than just smoke Marlboros like virtually every other teenager I knew, and I smoked at least one pack of every brand the nearest minimart carried before finally settling on Camel Filters. Still my favorite, though I don’t smoke much any more.
My mother smoked Eves, because they were “pretty.” Herbal Essence shampoo pushed her buttons too.
I remember an off brand cigarette called “Wings” from the early 40’s. Each pack had a small card that had a picture of a then current ‘war plane’. Kids use to trade them.
I remember that the “Raleigh” brand had cupons attached that you could trade in for prizes. (like green stamps) The “Old Gold” brand sponsored a quiz show on TV that had dancing girls covered by an over-size box of O.G.'s
40’s magazine adds had Doctors smoking and recommending “Camels” The cigarettes are still around but the smoking doctors have disappered :smack:
Cool.
I smoked them for a bit.
I do not remember why.
The Physician who delivered me smoked in the exam room. He reformed, chastising me for smoking.
John Wayne smoked Camels, and died of “The Big C”. 
An Elvis Costello lyric slightly clarified.
In my undergraduate days, I rolled my own. My professor/supervisor would often ask me to roll her one because she left hers elsewhere (in the car, at home, etc.). But she would pay me back when she bought some smokes.
And she always did. Except she liked Eves. And she would give me a few Eves as payback. Not exactly the kind of thing you want to be smoking with the boys at the bar when you’re all watching the game!
Here in NYC, you can get Pall Malls, Camels or Luckies, all without filters. At tobacco shops (as opposed to your average newsstand or drugstore), you can get foreign brands without filters. Or unfiltered American Spirits.
And before then, cigarette packs had the original baseball cards on them. This is why Honus Wagner cards are so rare - as a nonsmoker, he demanded that whatever company was releasing the cards not include his card any more.
You may be thinking of Gift Stars, which were also in packs of Spring cigarettes (which was my father’s preferred brand) as well as some brand (Golden Grain?) of bagged pasta.
Two for the Money, which aired in the 1950s; the reruns used to air occasionally on GSN. I think that, because Old Golds aren’t sold any more, GSN was allowed to leave the references to the brand in - GSN has had an on-again, off-again policy concerning Winston-sponsored episodes of I’ve Got a Secret, and even when they did air them, all spoken references to Winston had to be removed.
How about Sobraine Black Russians?
zombie or no
Fatima was the cigarette of cops. Marlboro was the cigarette of cowboys. Winston was the cigarette of cavemen.
I’ve seen them – they’re the black cigarettes with gold filters, right? Never smoked one, though. Specialty tobacco stores have brands like that.
What with regular smokes (Marlboro, e.g.) going for around $12 a pack here in NYC, I can’t even imagine what brands like Sobranies cost these days.
My Wife and I smoked them in the 1980’s. I’d like to get her some now, but the local tobacco shop says they are not imported because of the amount of taxes the US government charges on them. They are in NYC now?
[quote=“That_Don_Guy, post:151, topic:502933”]
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You may be thinking of Gift Stars, which were also in packs of Spring cigarettes (which was my father’s preferred brand) as well as some brand (Golden Grain?) of bagged pasta.
QUOTE]
No. I distinctly remember Raleigh coupons, my mother collected them in a special canister, we counted them into rubber-banded groups of 100
Raleigh cigarettes had a coupon in each pack, and they had bonus coupons in a carton, as an extra incentive to buy by the carton. My grandfather smoked Raleighs, and bought them by the carton. He’d crow about getting free stuff for the coupons. I remember looking through the coupon redemption catalog, and remarking to my grandmother that Grandpa was getting his value because of the coupons, or something like that. She said he was wasting his money by smoking, period. Of course she was right.
This was in the days when trading stamps were big with grocery stores, too. Green stamps, Scot stamps, and Plaid stamps are the ones I remember, though there were probably others.
The coupons and stamps were ways to make the product or store a bit cheaper than its competitors, without actually lowering the price. With the trading stamps, too, a wife could claim that she needed $X for grocery money, and get it, and she’d be able to show the receipts. However, the stamps were something that she could use to buy herself something.
In old photos of Dublin city centre there’s a prominent advert for Bendigo cigarettes (seen in the top left of the linked image). I’ve also seen pretty dodgy print adverts for them. However, googling I find scant information about them. They seem to have been a pretty big brand for much of the 20th century then died a death sometime around the middle of the century.
BelAir cigarettes were made by the same company as Raleghs and you comld mix and match the coupons for redemption. The little general store where I worked part time kept the “bonus” coupons from the carton and gave XX amount of them to employees at Christmas and birthdays. I remember getting an alarm clock with mine one year.
Grew up in the 1960s, and here’s the cigarette ads I most remember:
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Winston. Classic “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should” jingle. In the late 60’s they did a variation, based on the poor grammar of the original: “Winston tastes good as a cigarette should”; then “What do you want, good grammar or good taste?”
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Salem. Menthol cigarette. “Its the wonderful, wonderful, wonderful world of Salem Cigarettes” campaign early/mid 60’s, featuring a couple in various outdoor settings; always had graphics showing how Salem ‘filter-softened’ the smoke. Then in the latter 60s had the "You can take Salem out of the country, but… you can’t take the country out of Salem. Featured people opening little windows (like in Laugh-In) seemingly in outdoor settings, singing part of the jingle. I read where this effect was achieved (pre-CGI days) by having a mirrored wall with the various windows, opposite a projection screen with the country scene. Therefore, it looked like what you were seeing was the scene itself, instead of a reflection of the scene.
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Kent. Lots of various ad campaigns; but the ones I remember most were the “Happiness Is” campaign which had paintings of people with their Kents, to the tune of “Happiness Is” (such as “…to a golfer, it’s a hole-in-one. To a smoker, it’s the taste of Kent”. The other was the “For the best combination of filter and good taste – Kent satisfies best”. Would show various people around the city, just walking or engaged in their job, all smoking Kents, and briefly freeze-framed.
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Lark. One of the few with a charcoal filter. Classic “Show us your Larks” campaign of the mid-60s, which would feature footage from a moving car of various folks around town, with the “Show us your Larks” voice over beginning, and the William Tell Overture (“Have a Lark, have a Lark, have a Lark today”). Famously parodied by Jeno’s Pizza Rolls where various celebrity look-alikes are at a party, showing their Jeno’s pizza rolls, to the Wm Tell Overture (“Have a pizza, pizza, pizza roll”). The look-alikes were, as I remember, Rock Hudson, Gene Rayburn, Dame Edith Evans, and maybe Tom Smothers(?). Of course character actor Barney Phillips as a Lark executive accuses the Jenos party host of stealing their song, but he’s in turn confronted by the real Lone Ranger and Tonto (Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels) who accuse him of doing the same! (Everytime I saw that commercial, I thought they could have a guy dressed as William Tell, complete with bow & arrows, do the same to the Lone Ranger!).
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Tareyton. Strange cigarette in that it had both charcoal and a fiber components in it’s filter (the fiber reminded me of tightly packed cotton). Of course they featured the classic “Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch” tag line and folks with fake “black eyes”.
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Benson & Hedges. Famous for their 100mm cigarettes, which they turned into a memorable advertising campaign. To a terrific bossa-nova instrumental called “The Disadvantages of You” they’d show various scenes of the predicaments folks not used to such a long would get into (for instance, two guys are facing each other talking; one guy’s got the B&H 100 lit, and it goes into the other guy’s goatee, which starts smoking). Phil Bodner & the Brass Ring Orchestra took the jingle and released it as a single (where it charted in the Top 40) and on an album in 1967. I believe this was the second such example of a commercial jingle becoming a pop hit; the first was Alka Seltzer’s “No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach’s In)” by the T-Bones in 1966.
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Marlboro. Almost needless to say, as anyone around in the Sixties saw these Western classics, each almost a “mini-movie”. Cowboys and horses; to the tune of “The Magnificent Seven”. Interesting that a famous 1960s anti-smoking PSA did a dark parody of the Marlboro Man – a cowboy made of a cigarette named “Johnny Smoke”. The drawings used, were also kinda reminiscent of the Kent “Happiness Is” commercials.
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Kool. Menthol. Most of their 60s commercials featured various guys at work, complaining about how their cigarettes had lost their taste. A co-worker would then pop out his Kool pack, and suggest he try them. For instance, on election night as the polls are coming in, one campaign worker bitches about his smokes, to which another suggests he try Kool. Later, as their candidate appears assured of victory, the cigarette-lender asks “Kook enough for you?” to which he replies “Perfect!”. The jingle goes like “Your cigarette’s not tasting cool enough, til you come up to Kool”.
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Parliament. Played on their cigarettes being “America’s ‘parliament’.” Various Americans would “push” their Parliaments on Britishers. Example: an obnoxious American is going thru customs at London’s Heathrow Airport, and the customers inspector notices he’s packing Parliaments, and asks about them. The American makes a big deal about Parliament’s ‘famous’ recessed filter. Previous campaigns had established that Parliament keeps the filter a “neat, clean, quarter-inch away”!
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BelAir. Light menthol. BelAir teamed up with Raleigh for their “famous” BelAir-Raleigh coupons, which could be collected and redeemed for merchandise (sorta like S&H Green Stamps or Blue Chip Stamps at supermarkets!). The BelAir commercials invariably featured young couples enjoying themselves (and their smokes) outdoors, to the tune of “The light touch… just the right touch of menthol in BelAir filter cigarettes”. An aunt of mine who smoked used to visit, and she’d always get the BelAir-Raleigh coupons out of the cellophane wrapping before the empty pack got thrown away. My dad, who smoked Carltons at the time, tried her BelAirs and said it was like smoking nothing! Once I started smoking, I went with menthols, and found out what my Dad had meant! Salems and Newports gave more “bite,” yet I seemed to find Kools had the most menthol of all.
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Newport. I remember earlier in the 60s Newport used the same scenic outdoor shots of the “beautiful people” enjoying their smokes, to pleasant melodies, that many others did. But I especially remember the “Newport smokes fresher – smokes better, too” campaign. Featured folks in mundane situations (such as sitting watching TV) who light up and are suddenly transported to exotic settings! Another featured a Newport billboard that comes to life for a dude who’s waiting for a bus. When the guy tries to point this out to a bus driver, the billboard has become normal again, and the driver thinks he’s nuts! But the most memorable of all was the “cigarette people” dancers! Using stop-motion photography (like in the Ray Harryhausen sci-fi movies, and the famous Lucky Strike square-dancing cigarettes commercial of the 1950s) this showed cigarettes jumping out of their packs and assembling to form two complete “stick-type figures” of cigarettes, with the packs as their heads! One has a ladies hat and purse, so obviously the “lady” of the pair. They then proceed to dance to the Newport jingle! That commercial was one that we all found cute and amusing, and I can only imagine how long it took to film, using the stop-motion method. Maybe THE all-time classic cigarette commercial!
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Camel. I well remember the “I’d walk a mile for a Camel” campaign of the late Sixties, especially as my grandfather smoked them (and he smoked the original, non-filtered ones!).
Other notable cigarettes of the Sixties and early 70s (even if their TV commercials weren’t particularly noteworthy) were: Old Gold, L&M, Phillip Morris, Viceroy, Pall Mall (which as a kid I pronounced as “Paul Maul” instead of the correct “Pell Mell”!), Lucky Strike, Camel, Chesterfield, True, Vantage, Spring, York, Silva Thins (featuring a sauve James Bond-type dude with wraparound sunglasses), Oasis, Players, Carlton, and a couple aimed at women – Virginia Slims and Eve.