The Industry

• When research on this exhibition began in the 1990s, there were seven major tobacco companies in the United States: Philip Morris (maker of Marlboro and Virginia Slims), RJ Reynolds(Winston, Camel), Brown & Williamson (KOOL), P. Lorillard (Newport), American Brands (Carlton, Lucky Strike), Liggett (L & M), and United States Tobacco Company (SKOAL and Copenhagen snuff), which I referred to as “Cancer’s Seven Warning Signs.” By the end of the century, all of the companies had removed “tobacco” from their name. Philip Morris also had a make-over, becoming the more altruistically sounding Altria in 2004. The company acquired snuff-maker UST (formerly United States Tobacco Company) in 2008 and spun off Philip Morris International that same year. It has been suggested that an investment in Philip Morris shares in 1957 would have yielded the highest rate of return of any company on the New York Stock Exchange over the next fifty years. In the 1980s and 1990s, the profit on the Philip Morris’ Marlboro cigarette brand alone exceeded that of the combined profits of the company’s 3000 Kraft General Foods products. Following extensive  acquisitions and consolidation, the only major remaining American tobacco companies are Altria and Philip Morris International. The others–RJ Reynolds, American Brands, Brown & Williamson, and P. Lorillard–have all been taken over and merged into British American Tobacco, based in the United Kingdom. AB