Big Tobacco in the Big Apple
How New York City Became the Heart of the Tobacco Industry
…and Anti Smoking Activism
Billboards
The City’s Most Dominating Cigarette Advertisements (1:35)
One of the most famous outdoor advertising signs in the world–and itself a tourist attraction– was the 30- by 100-foot billboard for Camel cigarettes on the east side of Times Square between 43rd and 44th streets. From 1941 to 1966, a puff of steam resembling a four-foot high smoke ring blew from the mouth of an image of a soldier, movie star, or athlete every four seconds.
In the 1980s, an even larger Camel sign–covering the entire side of an eight-story building–appeared at the northwest corner of 42nd Street and 8th Avenue. Across the street on top of a five-story buildng was a huge Marlboro billboard. I paid the owner fifty dollars to let me stand next to the billboard, where I came only halfway up the height of the “o” in Marlboro.
“I had to come all the way up here to read the health warning” (1:17)
Video clip of Alan Blum, MD, on a Marlboro billboard on the roof of the building
at the northeast corner of 8th Avenue and 42nd Street, 1986
Video by Jack Micay, MD
“Camels Sure Agree Best With Me – Douglas Leigh”
Advertisement for Camels cigarettes
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
LIFE Magazine
1954
Douglas Leigh, The Man Who Lit Up Broadway, Dies at 92
Obituary by Douglas Martin
The New York Times
December 16, 1999
The Sign is Gone, But The Enjoyment Keeps Going
Camel Cigarette Pack
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
2000s
By the late 1970s, the Camel billboard was long gone but the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company had a new brand called Real that they plastered all over Times Square and in that same space billboard and throughout New York City. One of the advertising executives for R.J. Reynolds was said to have claimed that this was the most expensive advertising launch in history and ads for the product were on everything but painted rocks.
Marlboro billboard on an overpass in Queens (0:35)
Video
Alan Blum, MD
1995
Camel billboard near an overpass in Queens, (0:30)
Video
Alan Blum, MD
1995
Camel Billboard in Times Square (1:31)
Video
Alan Blum, MD
1995
Painted building Camel cigarettes advertisement, 8th Avenue and 42nd Street
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
1995
Painted building Winston cigarettes advertisement, 8th Avenue and 34th Street
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
1960s
Moving south on 8th Avenue toward Madison Square Garden at 8th Avenue and 34th Street was what was claimed to be the world’s largest outdoor billboard.
Painted building Newport cigarettes advertisement: world’s largest outdoor sign
Photograph and caption in Advertising Age
1979
Painted building KOOL cigarettes advertisement, 8th Avenue and 34th Street
Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co.
1990s
“Viewer Discretion Advised: Subliminal Imagery”
Billboard
Camel cigarettes
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
1990s
