Pall Mall (cigarette)

This article is about the cigarette company and their product. For other uses of the term, see Pall Mall.

Dutch Pall Mall pack
("Smoking is deathly")

Pall Mall cigarettes are a brand of cigarettes produced by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and internationally by British American Tobacco at multiple sites.

History

Pall Mall brand cigarettes were introduced in 1899 by the Butler & Butler Company, in an attempt to cater to the upper class with the first "premium" cigarette.

In 1907, Pall Mall was acquired by American Tobacco with the sale of Butler & Butler. Their new owners who used the premium brand to test out new innovations in cigarette design, with the "king-size" (now the standard size for cigarettes at 85mm), then a new way of stuffing the tobacco that was supposed to make the cigarettes easier on the throat.

Pall Malls reached the height of their popularity in 1960 when they were the number one brand of cigarettes in America. The gambles in design had paid off and so the company introduced "longs" or 100mm cigarettes (again creating a standard, this time for long cigarettes). It would later be dethroned in 1966 by Winston cigarettes, when Pall Mall found that it could no longer compete with the advertising campaign "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should." Ironically, in the 1940s, Pall Mall had its own grammatically incorrect slogan which touted it as the cigarette which "travels the smoke further".

In 1994, Pall Mall and Lucky Strike were purchased by Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation as the former American Tobacco company shed its tobacco brands. At the time, Pall Mall had fallen behind in design, remaining one of the few cigarette brands to remain filterless. Finally, in 1987, the new filtered Pall Malls were introduced, catching up with the industry that was shaped by their innovation. Brown & Williamson merged with R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company on July 30, 2004, with the surviving company taking the name, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. R. J. Reynolds continues to make unfiltered and filtered styles of Pall Mall for the U.S. market, emphasizing the latter. British American Tobacco makes and sells Pall Mall outside the U.S.

Pall Mall currently is in the 'Growth Brand' segment of the R.J. Reynolds brand portfolio Within British American Tobacco Pall Mall is one of their four drive brands.

Logo

The famous Pall Mall logo has large art nouveau lettering spelling out "Pall Mall" on the top front of the pack. On the face is a white coat of arms on the front and back of the pack. Showing two regal lions pawing the sides and a knight's helmet on top, the inside of the shield reads "Per Aspera Ad Astra" or "Through Difficulty to the Stars" which also appears on the state seal of Kansas (as "Ad Astra Per Aspera"). There is a banner underneath the shield that holds another Latin phrase, "In Hoc Signo Vinces" or "In this sign, you will conquer". The phrase was the one that appeared in a vision to Constantine before the Battle of Milvian Bridge where he was greatly outnumbered. God instructed Constantine to put the cross on all the shields of his men. The next day, Constantine was in Rome, victorious, paving the way for the Edict of Milan. The famous Pall Mall slogan, "Wherever Particular People Congregate", appears beneath the coat of arms.

Generally speaking, there are different designs for Pall Mall packs. It can be always identified on which market one or another pack of Pall Mall was bought. Nevertheless, the logo and the main features of it remain unchangeable.

In 2007, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company changed the packaging color of Pall Mall Ultra Lights - both short and 100s - from light blue to orange to stop confusion between the Ultra Lights and the Lights - both having been in blue colored packaging.

Recently Pall Mall Lights filter ring has changed from a gold color to a navy blue matching both the box and the Pall Mall lettering on the filter.

Cultural references

Pall Mall is the most frequently mentioned brand in stories and novels by author Charles Bukowski, suggesting that he himself preferred them to other brands.

Philip K. Dick extensively used the Pall Mall brand in his novel UBIK in which they became a major plot device.

Kurt Vonnegut, a Pall Mall smoker himself, used the brand in several of his novels. He was quoted as saying that they are "classy way to commit suicide."

Super Long Pall Mall cigarettes are the brand favored by Daisuke Jigen from the anime Lupin III.

The male lead in the movie Rosemary's Baby is seen with a carton of Pall Malls that he had just purchased.

Stephen King uses Pall Mall in many of his works.

Joan Benny recounts in her book Sunday Nights at Seven that her father Jack Benny received two cartons of Luckys and two cartons of Pall Mall cigarettes every week in association with American Tobacco's sponsorship of his radio show. Since the Bennys didn't smoke, they piled the cigarettes in Joan's closet. Joan started smoking at age 16 and smoked the Luckies until they ran out and then switched to Pall Mall. She reports she didn't buy cigarettes for the first time until she was in her 30s.

Pall Mall cigarettes are mentioned in the Peaches song "Boys Wanna be Her."

Johnny Depps' imaginary "enemy" smokes Pall Mall cigarettes and put it out in Johnny Depps characters car, in the 2004 movie Secret Window.

Mickey Avalon references the cigarette in his song "Hustler Hall of Fame."

Jason Aldean made a reference to Pall Mall cigarettes in his song "Hicktown."

In the novel The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, the narrator's father is portrayed as often sitting in his chair smoking Pall Mall cigarettes.

In the MSX version of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, the brand of the pack of cigarettes displayed during the opening is "Bal Mal" (sic). The pack has got the same appearance as a pack of Pall Mall cigarettes. In the Subsistence version, it was replace by a pack of fictional Gator cigarettes.

Pronunciation

The cigarette's name is correctly pronounced with the rhyming couplet "pal mal." In television advertising in the 1950s and earlier, announcers often pronounced it to sound like "pell mell." Pall Mall and its sister brand Lucky Strike were sponsors of the Jack Benny radio and television programs, and histories of the show recount how the American Tobacco company would dispatch numerous publicists to instruct the cast and staff of the correct pronunciation. With the dissipation of cigarette advertising, first with bans on radio, then television, the pronunciation has found a decidedly generational tone. Those who lived in the era of the audible advertisements pronounce it "pell mell" while those who have only the visual title to refer to often use the increasingly more common phonetic "paul mall." Wacky Packages spoofed the brand as "Paul Maul Peculiar Cigarettes."