Lucky Strike

For other uses, see Lucky Strike (disambiguation).

Lucky Strike

Lucky Strike logo launched in 2013.
Introduced	1871 (1871)
Produced by	British American Tobacco Japan Tobacco

Lucky Strike is an American brand of cigarette owned by the British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top selling cigarette in the United States during the 1930s.

History

Advertising photo for Lucky Strike by Nickolas Muray, 1936.

The brand was first introduced by R.A. Patterson of Richmond, Virginia, in 1871 as cut-plug chewing tobacco and later a cigarette. In 1905, the company was acquired by the American Tobacco Company (ATC), and Lucky Strike would later prove to be its answer to R. J. Reynolds' Camel.

In 1917, the brand started using the slogan, "It's Toasted", to inform consumers about the manufacturing method in which the tobacco is toasted rather than sun-dried, a process touted as making the cigarettes taste more desirable.

In the late 1920s, the brand was sold as a route to thinness for women. One typical ad said, "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet." Sales of Lucky Strikes increased by more than 300% during the first year of the advertising campaign. Sales went from 14 billion cigarettes in 1925 to 40 billion sold in 1930, making Lucky Strike the leading brand nationwide.

Lucky Strike's association with radio music programs began during the 1920s on NBC. By 1928, the bandleader and vaudeville producer B. A. Rolfe was performing on radio and recording as "B.A. Rolfe and his Lucky Strike Orchestra" for Edison Records. In 1935, ATC began to sponsor Your Hit Parade, featuring North Carolina tobacco auctioneer Lee Aubrey "Speed" Riggs (later, another tobacco auctioneer from Lexington, Kentucky, F.E. Boone, was added). The weekly radio show's countdown catapulted the brand's success, remaining popular for 25 years. The shows capitalized on the tobacco auction theme and each ended with the signature phrase "Sold, American."

The company's advertising campaigns generally featured a theme that stressed the quality of the tobacco purchased at auction for use in making Lucky Strike cigarettes and claimed that the higher quality tobacco resulted in a cigarette with better flavor. American engaged in a series of advertisements using Hollywood actors as endorsers of Lucky Strike, including testimonials from Douglas Fairbanks, concerning the cigarette's flavor.

Lucky Strike was also a sponsor of comedian Jack Benny's radio and TV show, The Jack Benny Show, which was also introduced as The Lucky Strike Program.

Package of Lucky Strike cigarettes.

The brand's signature dark green pack was changed to white in 1942. In a famous advertising campaign that used the slogan "Lucky Strike Green has gone to war", the company claimed the change was made because the copper used in the green color was needed for World War II. American Tobacco actually used chromium to produce the green ink, and copper to produce the gold-colored trim. A limited supply of each was available, and substitute materials made the package look drab.

The truth of the matter was that the white package was introduced to modernize the label and to increase the appeal of the package among female smokers; market studies showed that the green package was not found attractive to women, who had become important consumers of tobacco products. The war effort became a convenient way to make the product more marketable while appearing patriotic at the same time.

Famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy was challenged by company president George Washington Hill to improve the existing green and red package, with a $50,000 bet at stake. Loewy changed the background from green to white, making it more attractive to women as well as cutting printing costs by eliminating the need for green dye. He also placed the Lucky Strike target logo on both sides of the package, a move that increased both visibility and sales. Hill paid off the bet.

British Lucky Strike packet with cigarette alongside and government health warning.

The message "L.S.M.F.T." ("Lucky Strike means fine tobacco") was introduced on the package in 1945.

Post World War Two

Jenson Button driving for BAR at Indianapolis in the 2005 US Grand Prix donning a Lucky Strike livery

As a result of British American Tobacco plc's buying out American Tobacco Company in 1976, Lucky Strike came under control of BAT. The company acquired Formula 1s Tyrrell Racing team in 1997 and rebranded it as British American Racing the following year, sponsoring the team with its Lucky Strike and stablemate 555 brands. The team was bought outright by partners Honda by 2006, though Lucky Strike continued to sponsor the team until the end of that year. Tobacco advertising in motorsports

In 1978 and 1994, export rights and U.S. rights were purchased by Brown & Williamson. In the 1960s, filtered styles were launched in addition to a mentholated version called "Lucky Strike Green". This time "Green" was referring to menthol and not to the overall package color. In late 2006, both the Full Flavored and Light filtered varieties of Lucky Strike cigarettes were discontinued in North America. However, Lucky Strike continued to have marketing and distribution support in territories controlled by British American Tobacco as a global drive brand. In addition, R. J. Reynolds continues to market the original, non-filter Lucky Strikes in the United States. Lucky Strikes currently have a small base of smokers.

In 2007, a new packaging of Lucky Strikes was released, with a two-way opening which split seven cigarettes from the rest. In the same year, the company used the world's smallest man, He Pingping, in their ad campaigns.

In 2009, Lucky Strike Silver (the brand marketed as lighter) changed their UK packets from the quintessential red design to blue, albeit with a red teaser outer covering the packet.

Cultural references

A Lucky Strike package appears in the opening credits of the Cowboy Bebop movie.

The cigarette brand is referenced in many modern forms of media.

In entertainment and media

In film

• In the film Beverly Hills Cop, while undercover, Eddie Murphy's character attempts to sell boxes of Lucky Strike and Pall Mall cigarettes.
• Lucky Strikes can also be seen on a piano in Ralph Bakshi's 1981 animated film American Pop.
• In the 1987 biographical film La Bamba, Ritchie Valens' half-brother Bob Morales, played by Esai Morales, is shown smoking Lucky Strikes.
• In the 1993 American film A Perfect World the main character played by Kevin Costner, is shown buying and smoking Lucky Strike.
• In the 1994 American film True Lies a camera is built into a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes.
• In the 1994 American drama The Shawshank Redemption many of the main characters are seen trading cigarettes and some of the cigarettes shown are Lucky Strike brand.
• In the 2011 Norwegian coming of age film Turn Me On, Dammit! The main character, Alma, is seen with a Lucky Strike box containing a hash cigarette.
• In Shutter Island both Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule smoke Lucky Strike .
• In the American television show Mad Men,ad agencies Sterling Cooper and later Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce both represent Lucky Strike.

In The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936), Fred MacMurray may be seen holding a green and red pack of Luckies in one scene.

In games

• In the MSX2 version of the video game Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, a fictionalized version of the brand, called Lucky Striker, is said to be the protagonist's favorite.
• In Mafia The City of Lost Heaven, protagonist Thomas Angelo smokes a fictionalized version called Lucky Bird (Lucky Bird is a real name of a Chinese cigarette's manufacturer).
• The sequel Mafia 2 includes another version of this brand, called Big Break.

In music

• Billy Joel's 1983 song "Keeping the Faith", from the album An Innocent Man, mentions the brand in the lyric: "I took a fresh pack of Luckies and a mint called Sen-Sen. My old man's Trojans and his Old Spice aftershave."
• In the Tom Waits' song "Kentucky Avenue", the first-person speaker refers to his "half pack of Lucky Strikes".
• In the ZZ Top song "I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide", the second verse includes the lines: "They sportin' short dresses, wearin' spike-heeled shoes, They smokin' Lucky Strikes, wearing nylon too."
• Minneapolis Indie Rock band Howler based the artwork of their debut album America Give Up on a pack of Lucky Strikes.
• In The Ataris' song "All You Can Ever Learn is What You Already Know", an empty box of Lucky Strikes is referred too in the second verse.
• In Rodney Atkins' song "These Are My People", he mentions "Chokin' on the smoke from a Lucky Strike

somebody lifted off his old man."

In television

• In the AMC show Mad Men, Lucky Strike is a major client of the Madison Avenue advertising agency Sterling Cooper (and later its successor agency, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce), from the first season of the show until midway through the fourth season. The plot line of the show's pilot deals with the struggles of the firm's creative director, Don Draper (Jon Hamm), to come up with a new advertising campaign for the cigarettes, because new regulations mean the brand can no longer claim to be healthier than any other cigarette, which has been the cornerstone of their advertising strategy. In the fourth season of the show, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce loses the Lucky Strike account to rival firm BBDO, which was in fact the real life advertising agency that Lucky Strike used.
• In the hit 1980s NBC television series Miami Vice, the character Det. James "Sonny" Crockett (Don Johnson) smoked unfiltered Lucky Strikes. The package is occasionally visible, particularly in the two-hour pilot, "Brother's Keeper" and the episode "Calderone's Demise". Johnson ceded to pressure to not smoke on camera later in the show's history.
• Van Montgomery from the TV show Reba wanted to start smoking Lucky Strike Cigarettes when he was medically told to stop playing Arena Football.

In other uses

• Former U.S. Senator Jesse Helms (R–North Carolina) handed out Lucky Strike cigarettes, which were his personal brand of choice, in his Senate office to meeting attendants until it became "utterly unfashionable."

World War Two: "Camp Lucky Strike"

Camp Lucky Strike was one of the American Army camps established near Le Havre, France in World War II. As explained in "Introducton: The Cigarette Camps" at the website, The Cigarette Camps: The U.S. Army Caps 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.

See also

• Tobacco smoking

External links

• "BrandLucky Strike" at CigarettesPedia.com
• Gallery of classic graphic design featuring Lucky Strike cigarettes
• "Lucky Strikes?" by Barbara Mikelson at snopes.com (June 12, 2006)