Selling Smoke: Tobacco Advertising and Anti-Smoking Campaigns

Prizes and Promotions

For decades, companies ran sweepstakes, provided favors (like these bridge hands featuring movie stars Jean Harlow and Helen Twelvetrees), and gave away free cigarettes. 

Many of the brands offered “free” merchandise for redeeming universal product codes or coupons included in each pack by ordering from a catalog such as those shown here.

By the 1990s, catalog redemption programs such as Camel Cash, Marlboro Gear, and Virginia Slims V-Wear were ubiquitous. All three programs were phased out by 2009.