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 An old American tin box of Old Gold cigarettes | |
| Product type | Cigarette |
|---|---|
| Owner | R. J. Reynolds |
| Produced by | R. J. Reynolds |
| Country | United States |
| Introduced | 1926 |
| Markets | United States [1] [2] [3] |
| Tagline | "Not a cough in a carload", "Trust Old Gold for a TREAT instead of a TREATMENT", "The cigarette for independent people" |
| Carcinogenicity: IARC group 1 | |
Old Gold is an American brand of cigarette owned and manufactured by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
Old Gold was introduced in 1926 by the Lorillard Tobacco Company and, upon release, would become one of its star products. By 1930, with the aid of a campaign from Lennen & Mitchell that featured exuberant flappers and the slogan "Not a cough in a carload", Old Gold won 7% of the market. During the 1930s, Lennen & Mitchell built the Old Gold brand on radio by advertising in music programming targeting young people.
In 1941, Lorillard moved the Old Gold account to J. Walter Thompson Co., which changed the brand's slogan to "Something new has been added". On TV, in the 1950s, Old Gold was known for its dancing cigarette packages (women wearing white boots and Old Gold packages), which tapped in time to an Old Gold jingle. Lennen & Mitchell also handled TV for Old Gold.
In 1953, Lorillard began advertising king-size Old Gold side by side with the standard brand. in 1957, it added a filtered variety as well.
In 1957, Kent received the lion's share of Lorillard's $20 million advertising budget; a year earlier, the largest part of Lorillard $14.8 million budget had gone to Old Gold.
In 1958, it introduced Old Gold Straights with reduced tar and nicotine levels with a campaign from L&N in newspapers in more than 140 markets and on radio and TV.
In 1966, Lorillard spent $36.4 million advertising its products, with Kent the most heavily advertised at $15.5 million. Almost half of the Kent money went to network TV. Runner-up media included magazines, spot TV and spot radio. Lorillard's No. 2 cigarette brand in terms of spending was Newport, its chief menthol entry. Measured media spending for Newport in 1965 exceeded $10.5 million, with network TV the chief beneficiary. Next in line was Old Gold, recording $4 million in measured media, followed by Spring with $1.5 million.
In 1967, Lorillard increased overall ad spending to $41.5 million. At that time, Lorillard's agencies included Foote, Cone & Belding for True and Danville filter; Grey Advertising for Kent, Old Gold, Spring 100 and York Imperial 100; and L&N for Newport, cigars, pipe and chewing tobaccos.
In 1970, Congress banned all tobacco advertising from TV and radio. The following year, Lorillard introduced Maverick, its first new full-flavor cigarette since Old Gold, making heavy use of free samples. Also, as part of its venture in alternative forms of advertising, early in the 1970s Lorillard tried advertising Kent and True in paperback books. [4]
Lorillad stopped advertising Old Gold around 1975. [5]
In the 2010s, the Old Gold non-filter variant was discontinued. Lorillard was acquired by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in 2015. While hard to find, Old Gold is still[ as of? ] manufactured and available in the United States.[ citation needed ]
Lorillard made many poster and magazine advertisements to promote the Old Gold brand, from the 1930s to the 1970s, when Lorillard stopped advertising the brand. [6] [7] [8]
Besides poster and magazine adverts, TV advertisements were also made to promote the cigarettes, until the 1970s when TV advertisement was banned. The slogan often used in the later ads was "The cigarette for independent people". [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
In the 1920s, American professional Baseball player Babe Ruth advertised Old Gold cigarettes. In one of the ads left, Ruth is shown swinging his bat and giving his endorsement to Old Golds in a "blindfold test". In the blindfold test portion of the ad, he is quoted as saying: "Old Gold's mildness and smoothness marked it 'right off the bat' as the best", signed: "Babe Ruth". [15]
In the 1950s, with studies suggesting that smoking may be linked with lung cancer, Lorillard introduced Halloween-themed adverts that were trying to downplay the effects smoking has on one's health. The ads included slogans like "We don’t try to scare you with medical claims... Old Gold cures just one thing... The World’s Best Tobacco" and "Scare claims fool no one so... Trust Old Gold for a TREAT instead of a TREATMENT" to claim that the reports were false, and that smoking wasn't bad for the health. [16] [17]
In July 1942, a complaint was made by the Federal Trade Commission against Lorillard because they made a claim in Reader's Digest that Old Gold cigarettes were lower in nicotine and throat-irritating tars and resins than other leading brands at the time. These health claims, however, were not substantiated and thus the FTC filed a complaint about misleading advertising towards Lorillard. [18] [19]
In the Mad Men episode "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," Don Draper speaks with a waiter who says he favours Old Gold cigarettes. Draper himself is later seen smoking Old Gold Straights in Season 6.
Camp Old Gold was one of the American Army camps established near Le Havre, France in World War II. As explained in "Introduction: The Cigarette Camps" at the website, The Cigarette Camps: The U.S. Army Camps in the Le Havre Area:
The staging-area camps were named after various brands of American cigarettes; the assembly area camps were named after American cities. The names of cigarettes and cities were chosen for two reasons: First, and primarily, for security. Referring to the camps without an indication of their geographical location went a long way to ensuring that the enemy would not know precisely where they were. Anybody eavesdropping or listening to radio traffic would think that cigarettes were being discussed or the camp was stateside, especially regarding the city camps. Secondly, there was a subtle psychological reason, the premise being that troops heading into battle wouldn't mind staying at a place where cigarettes must be plentiful and troops about to depart for combat would be somehow comforted in places with familiar names of cities back home (Camp Atlanta, Camp Baltimore, Camp New York, and Camp Pittsburgh, among others). By war's end, however, all of the cigarette and city camps were devoted to departees. Many processed liberated American POWs (Prisoners of War) and some even held German POWs for a while. [20] [21]
Parliament is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA in the United States and Philip Morris International outside of the United States.
Virginia Slims is an American brand of cigarettes owned by Altria. It is manufactured by Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International.
Pall Mall is a British brand of cigarettes produced by British American Tobacco.
The Marlboro Man is a figure that was used in tobacco advertising campaigns for Marlboro cigarettes. In the United States, where the campaign originated, it was used from 1954 to 1999. The Marlboro Man was first conceived by Leo Burnett in 1954. The images initially featured rugged men portrayed in a variety of roles but later primarily featured a rugged cowboy or cowboys in picturesque wild terrain. The ads were originally conceived as a way to popularize filtered cigarettes, which at the time were considered feminine.
Newport is an American brand of menthol cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The brand was originally named for the seaport of Newport, Rhode Island.
L&M is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Altria and Philip Morris International. The name comes from the tobacco company founded in 1873 called Liggett & Myers, predecessor of today's Liggett Group, in which L&M was originally produced.
Salem is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by ITG Brands, a subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco, inside the U.S. and by Japan Tobacco outside the United States.
Viceroy is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in the United States and British American Tobacco outside of the United States.
Lorillard Tobacco Company was an American tobacco company that marketed cigarettes under the brand names Newport, Maverick, Old Gold, Kent, True, Satin, and Max. The company had two operating segments: cigarettes and electronic cigarettes.
Kent is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in the United States and British American Tobacco elsewhere. The brand is named after Herbert Kent, a former executive at Lorillard Tobacco Company.
Tareyton is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
Doral is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
Truth is an American public-relations campaign aimed at reducing teen smoking in the United States. It is conducted by the Truth Initiative and funded primarily by money obtained from the tobacco industry under the terms of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement reached between 46 U.S. states and the four largest companies in the tobacco industry.
Winston is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by ITG Brands, subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco in the United States and by Japan Tobacco outside the U.S. The brand is named after the town where R. J. Reynolds started his business which is Winston-Salem, North Carolina. As of 2017, Winston has the seventh-highest U.S. market share of all cigarette brands, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Maxwell Report.
"Winston tastes good like a cigarette should" is an advertising slogan that appeared in newspaper, magazine, radio, and television advertisements for Winston cigarettes, manufactured by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Reynolds used the slogan from Winston's introduction in 1954 until 1972. It is one of the best-known American tobacco advertising campaigns. In 1999, Advertising Age included the "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should" jingle in its list of the 10 best radio and television jingles in the United States during the 20th century.
Lark is an American brand of cigarettes, owned by Altria Group, and manufactured by Philip Morris USA in the United States and Philip Morris International for the rest of the world.
Embassy is a British brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Imperial Tobacco.
The tar derby is the period in the 1950s marked by a rapid influx in both cigarette advertising focused on tar content measurements to differentiate cigarettes and brand introduction or repositioning focusing on filter technology. The period ended in 1959 after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman and several cigarette company presidents agreed to discontinue usage of tar or nicotine levels in advertisements.
True is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned by Reynolds American and manufactured through its subsidiary R.J. Reynolds. The brand was created and formerly owned by the Lorillard Tobacco Company.
Philip Morris is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned by Philip Morris International. Cigarettes are manufactured by the firm worldwide except in the US, where Philip Morris USA produces tobacco products.
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