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Product type | Cigarette |
---|---|
Owner | British American Tobacco |
Produced by | BAT South Africa |
Country | South Africa |
Introduced | 1950s |
Markets | Switzerland, South Africa, Namibia [1] [2] [3] |
Previous owners | "Winston Tobacco Company" |
Registered as a trademark in | 19 June 1973, expired 19 June 2004 |
Tagline | "Men Rate Gunston Great" |
Carcinogenicity: IARC group 1 |
Gunston is a South African brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by the South African subsidiary of conglomerate British American Tobacco. [4]
Gunston was established in the 1950s by the Winston Tobacco Company in South Africa. [2] It enjoyed significant popularity in the South African market until its sales began to decrease, with consumers increasingly favoring other brands like Peter Stuyvesant and Marlboro.[ citation needed ]
On April 28, 1972, a trademark request for the phrase "Gunston cigarettes" was submitted and subsequently approved on June 19, 1973. This trademark remained valid until June 19, 2004. [5]
In December 1999, the Independent Online reported that Gunston, along with brands like John Player International, Camel Plain, and Gitanes, faced the possibility of being banned if the manufacturers did not reduce the tar content in these brands. Manufacturers were given a three-month window to comply with the new regulations, and they did so. These regulations were aligned with the 1999 recommendations from the World Health Organization, which set a maximum limit of 15 mg of tar and 1.5 mg of nicotine in cigarettes. It was also planned to further reduce these limits to 12 mg of tar and 1.2 mg of nicotine after two or three years. [6]
Various magazine and poster advertisements were made to advertise the brand. Some ads also included Team Gunston (a Formula One team owned by the Rhodesian racing driver John Love) and the "Gunston 500", a South African surf competition. [7] [8] The slogan that was frequently used was "Men Rate Gunston Great". [9]
Some radio advertisements for Springbok Radio were also made. [10] [11]
Gunston provided sponsorship to Team Gunston from 1968 to 1975. This sponsorship marked an early instance of tobacco sponsorship in motor racing. They supported Rhodesian drivers John Love and Sam Tingle during the 1968 South African Championship for Formula 1 and Formula 5000 vehicles. Before their involvement in Formula 1 sponsorship, the team also participated in the non-championship event, the Rhodesian Grand Prix, which took place at the James McNeillie Circuit in Bulawayo. [12]
Gunston sponsored Team Gunston in the South African F2. [13] [14]
Gunston sponsored Team Gunston in the Kyalami 9 Hours (also known as the 1000 km of Kyalami). [15] [16]
Gunston served as the primary sponsor for the surfing championship previously known as the "Durban 500." However, once Gunston took on this sponsorship, the event's name was changed to the "Gunston 500" surfing championship. [17] This sponsorship came to an end when tobacco sponsorships were prohibited in South Africa in 1999. [18]
Camel is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in the United States and by Japan Tobacco outside the U.S.
Marlboro is an American brand of cigarettes owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA within the United States and by Philip Morris International outside the US except Canada where the brand is owned and manufactured by Imperial Tobacco Canada. Marlboro's largest cigarette manufacturing plant is located in Richmond, Virginia.
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John Maxwell Lineham Love was a Rhodesian racing driver. He participated in 10 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 29 December 1962. He achieved one podium, and scored a total of six championship points. He also won the 1962 British Saloon Car Championship, now known as the British Touring Car Championship. All but one of his Formula One entries were in races held within Africa, either as championship or non-championship rounds.
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The South African Formula One Championship, was a Formula One motor racing championship held in South Africa between 1960 and 1975, including races in Rhodesia and Portuguese Mozambique.
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Team Gunston was a privateer team founded by Rhodesian racing driver John Love to enter his own cars in Formula One and sports car racing between 1962 and 1975. He also entered cars under his own name, i.e. John Love. Commonly the vehicles were entered for Love himself, but he also provided cars for a number of other drivers during the period.
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As nicotine is highly addictive, marketing nicotine-containing products is regulated in most jurisdictions. Regulations include bans and regulation of certain types of advertising, and requirements for counter-advertising of facts generally not included in ads. Regulation is circumvented using less-regulated media, such as Facebook, less-regulated nicotine delivery products, such as e-cigarettes, and less-regulated ad types, such as industry ads which claim to discourage nicotine addiction but seem, according to independent studies, to promote teen nicotine use.