Most marketing of cigarette brands is done by the cigarette manufacturing companies themselves, although cigarette advertising is becoming more and more difficult in the United States as the government has added more limitations to the ways that cigarette companies can advertise.
Cigarette advertising increased dramatically after World War II. Companies believed that they had to move fast in order to become the new leading cigarette brand. A sole leading cigarete brand never really prevailed, however. Instead, the industry came up with many new innovations to entice customers. At the beginning of the 1960s menthol, filter tips, king size, and 100 millimeter cigarettes were all developed.
Surgeon
General's Reports
In 1964 The Surgeon General made the first report on
tobacco saying that "cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health."
In 1966, a law was passed requiring that all cigarette
packaging contain the message.
In 1971, the surgeon general revised the statement to
"cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health".
Cartoon by Wayne Stayskal
As a result of the first surgeon general's report and due to a growing concern for health, in 1970 "hi-fi" or high filtration cigarettes were developed. These cigarettes contained no more than 15 mg of tar. These cigarettes were extremely popular. The average cigarette went from having an average of 43 mg of tar in 1955 to an average of 18 mg of tar in 1976. During the 1980s over half of all cigarette advertising budgets went to the promotion of this new type of cigarette.
Today, the advertising of cigarettes is even more limited, not just by a mandatory surgeon general's warning, but cigarette advertising is banned from all radio and TV. This means that cigarette companies must advertise at sporting events, concerts, and other various events.
In addition to these barriers in the cigarette advertising industry, there is a great deal of anti-smoking advertising that companies are being forced to deal with.