 | This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(April 2022) |
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| Product type | Cigarette |
|---|---|
| Owner | Imperial Tobacco |
| Country | England, United Kingdom |
| Introduced | 1888 |
| Markets | United Kingdom, Ireland [1] [2] [3] [4] |
| Previous owners | W.D. & H.O. Wills |
| Carcinogenicity: IARC group 1 | |
Woodbine is a British brand of cigarettes which, as of 2019, is owned and manufactured by Imperial Tobacco. Woodbine cigarettes are named after the woodbine flowers, native to Eurasia.
Woodbine was launched in 1888 by W.D. & H.O. Wills. Noted for its strong unfiltered cigarettes, the brand was cheap and popular in the early 20th century with the working-class, as well as with army men during the First and Second World War. [5] [6] In the Great War, the British Army chaplain Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy MC was affectionately nicknamed "Woodbine Willie" by troops on the Western Front to whom he handed out cigarettes along with Bibles and spiritual comfort. In the 1890s, Woodbine cigarettes were offered at a margin of 19%, with a possible maximum discount of 10%. In the United Kingdom, the brand was sold at very low advertising costs and total expenditure on sales promotion for all cigarettes and tobacco brands in 1925 was only 2d per pound of tobacco sold. [7]
The intricate nineteenth century packet design remained in use until the mid 1960s. Although Wills changed the packaging, Woodbine sales continued to drop.
In common parlance, the unfiltered high-tar Woodbine was one of the brands collectively known as "gaspers" until about 1950, because new smokers found their harsh smoke difficult to inhale.
A filtered version was launched in the United Kingdom in 1948, but was discontinued in 1988. Woodbines came in four different packs: 5 cigarettes, 10 cigarettes, 20 cigarettes and 50 cigarettes.
They were often known as "Woodies". [8]
In the 1960s, a few television ads were made in which Gordon Rollings played a man who engaged in numerous activities (including waiting for the bus or setting up a beach chair) and would always end in misery. He then would grab a packet of Woodbines from his pocket and light one, followed by a happy tune and a man reading the line "Light up life with a Woodbine! It's Britain's best-selling cigarette!". [9] [10] [11] at the end.
The ads were never played on TV however, as all television commercials for cigarettes were banned on 1 August 1965. [12] [13] A jingle was also made to promote Woodbine in the late 1950s or early 1960s. [14]
Some late 19th- to early 20th-century steamships sported as many as five long and thin smokestacks (sometimes including a dummy one), notably the Russian cruiser Askold, earning them the nickname "packet of woodbines" among sailors.
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1Australia only; 2Brands of Habanos, a 50:50 joint venture between Imperial Tobacco and Cubatabaco ; 350% share; 4formerly, "Commonwealth Brands" | |||||||
