30 April 1919: Cigarette Ad Includes Endorsement from a Medical Journal

On this day in 1919, the Athens Banner included this large advertisement:

 

(click image to enlarge)

 

Sweet Caporal cigarettes also distributed collectible cards, pins, and domino discs with each package of cigarettes, primarily featuring baseball players and other athletes, but also bass, birds, flags, cartoons, or actresses as well. Many of these cards can currently be found on memorabilia and auction websites.

Flavored cigarettes were banned in the United States as of 22 September 2009, as part of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (pdf). Plain Sweet Caporal cigarettes are still manufactured today by Imperial Tobacco Canada.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Dec. 1918 - July 1919 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• 101 Ways to Make Money in the Trading Card Market by Paul Green and Kit Kiefer via PINES.
• Tobacco Tins: A Collector's Guide by Douglas Congdon-Martin in the general collection.
• Alcohol and Tobacco: America's Drugs of Choice by Sandra Alters in the Reference collection.
• Dying to Quit: Why We Smoke and How We Stop by Janet Brigham in the general collection.
• Green Leaf and Gold: Tobacco in North Carolina by Jerome E. Brooks in the general collection.
• The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America by Allan M. Brandt in the general collection.
• The Gilded Leaf: Triumph, Tragedy, and Tobacco by Patrick Reynolds in the general collection.
• Ashes to Ashes: America's Hundred-Year Cigarette War by Richard Kluger in the general collection.
• Sugartime: The Hidden Pleasures of Making Maple Syrup by Susan Hauser in the general collection.
• A Tree for All Seasons by Robin Bernard in the children's collection.
• Sweet Caporal items available on eBay.