Tobacco
Smoke Players [sic] Navy Mixture. England: Player’s Navy Cut Cigarettes, [ca. 1900].
A curious chromolithographed trade card showing a young boy climbing a tree only to find a pack of cigarettes. Cigarette insert cards were used as stiffeners beginning in the 1870s. Gradually advertisements with celebrities were added to them and sets were produced, creating a collecting craze. Many adult product ads appealed to children.
Herbert Tareyton: There’s something about them you’ll like. Durham, NC: The American Tobacco Company, 1939.
In 1875, tobacco product manufacturers started to insert cards to stiffen the packaging. The cards began to be issued in sets in 1893. In every Tareyton cigarette pack sold in Britain in 1939, a pop-up card of an English landmark was inserted. Each card was enclosed in an illustrated envelope that described the history of the landmark. These premiums were produced in a set of twenty-four, encouraging smokers to collect the set. Shown here is Christ Church College and Buckingham Palace.
Dexter’s Key West Cigarettes. [ca. 1940s].
The liveried young man in this patented advertisement for English cigarettes reminds one of the bellhop Johnny, who “call[ed] for Phillip Morris” cigarettes when it was legal to advertise cigarettes on TV. Open the easel and a tray with the cigarette carton lifts up. In England and the United States, patents on the movable mechanisms were applied for. This ad was probably made for placement on tobacco shop counters.
Presenting the TOP profit maker in the history of cigarette vending. Chicago, IL: The Seeburg Corp., [ca. 1960].
The Seeburg Corporation, best known for jukeboxes and beverage vending machines, started marketing cigarettes in 1959. The machine promised more profit by prioritizing the “fastest moving brands.” The v-fold pop-up ad, possibly an industry magazine insert for a Canadian vending machine distributor, promises the machine has “more features that add to the profit of every pack sold.”
Camel. 75 Years and still smokin’. Winston-Salem, NC: R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co, 1988.
Pop-up inserts in magazines became popular in 1986 soon after a Transamerica ad appeared in Time magazine [see No. 85]. Joe ‘Cool’ Camel first appeared in 1988 for the cigarette’s 75th Anniversary, as seen in this March 7, 1988, issue of Sports Illustrated. A lawsuit by the Journal of the American Medical Association was brought against Camel cigarettes to stop targeting children with Joe Camel since over 32% of underage smokers were smoking Camels. The ad has a Buy One, Get One Free coupon on the reverse.
Quest Cigarettes, “Nicotine Free.” Mebane, NC: Vector Tobacco Co., 2003.
Quest cigarettes contained three levels of nicotine to help users gradually lower their degree of dependency. But, curiously, in the same Time magazine ad, a warning states that “This product is NOT intended for use in quitting smoking. Quest is for smokers seeking to reduce nicotine exposure only.” The object was apparently to keep smokers smoking but with less nicotine intake.