America’s pastime and tobacco have been intricately related for 150 years, practically from the beginning of professional baseball. Tobacco companies were among the earliest and most visible advertisers at ballgames. This exhibition features examples of such promotional items from the University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society, which holds the most comprehensive collection on the tobacco industry, cigarette marketing, and anti-smoking advocacy at any university.
St. Louis Cardinals vs. New York Yankees Score book
Advertiements for Between the Acts Little Cigars and Liggett & Mysers Tobacco Company’s Chesterfield cigarettes
1926
Home Run cigarettes
Retail store advertising poster for the American Tobacco Company’s Home Run cigarettes
1910
Home Run Cigarettes
American Tobacco Company
1910
“NEW YORK AMERICANS” FATIMA CIGARETTES
Collectible baseball trading card by Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company
1913
“NEW YORK NATIONALS” FATIMA TURKISH BLEND CIGARETTES
Collectible baseball trading card by Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company
1913
“BROOKLYN NATIONALS” FATIMA TURKISH BLEND CIGARETTES
Collectible baseball trading card by Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company
1913
On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson (1919 – 1972) became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era as the first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Since the 1880s, African Americans had only been permitted to play in the Negro Leagues. In his ten-year playing career, Robinson won the first Rookie of the Year Award in 1947 and the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949. He was named an All-Star from 1949 through 1954. In 1955, he helped the Dodgers win their first World Series championship.
In 1997, MLB retired his uniform number, 42. Since 2004, MLB has held a Jackie Robinson Day when every player on every team wears number 42. Regrettably, like most of the baseball stars who played in the era before the 1964 Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health, Robinson endorsed brands of cigarettes. Although such endorsements faded beginning in the 1960s, cigarette advertisements continue to appear in baseball scorecards and programs until the 1990s. As recently as the 1980s, 22 of the 28 MLB stadiums had prominent billboards with cigarette advertisements.
“YOU GET A CHANGE WEEK-ENDS….give your throat a change too…with KOOLS”
Advertisement by Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company for Kool cigarettes
1939
“YOU GIVE YOURSELF A CHANGE ON WEEK-ENDS…give your throat a change, too, with KOOLS”
Advertisement by Brown and Wiliamson Tobacco Company for Kool cigarettes
The Saturday Evening Post
1939
“…So someone pitched you a pack of KOOLs…”
Advertisement by Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company
The Saturday Evening Post
Circa 1940
“Two Fine Products of The American Tobacco Company, sponsors of Dodger Baseball on Radio and TV”
Advertisement for Lucky Strike and Tareyton cigarettes
Brooklyn Dodgers Yearbook
1950s
“LOOK FOR THE VANTAGE SPORTS PUZZLE NEXT WEEK”
Advertisement by RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company for Vantage cigarettes
The Sporting News
December 4, 1989
“1981 U.S. GOV’T REPORT: CARLTON LOWEST”
Advertisement by the American Tobacco Company
The New York Times sports section
June 6, 1981
“Right Into the Stands”
Advertisement by Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company for Chesterfield cigarettes
LIFE Magazine
1937
“Mild to insipidness or strong to harshness”
Advertisement by S. Anargyros for Murad cigarettes
Munsey’s Magazine
1910s
“Scores every time…”
Advertisement by the American Tobacco Company for Tareyton cigarettes
Saturday Evening Post
August 27, 1955
“MILWAUKEE HERO LEW BURDETTE”
Advertisement by RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company for Camel cigarettes featuring pitcher Lew Burdette of the World Champion Milwaukee Braves
LIFE Magazine
1958
“Tareyton delivers the flavor…”
Advertisement buy the American Tobacco Company featuring all-star shortstop
Maury Wills of the Los Angeles Dodgers
EBONY Magazine
1963
“ONLY KOOL BRINGS YOU REAL MENTHOL MAGI!”
Advertisement by Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company featuring New York Yankees catcher Elston Howard
EBONY Magazine
1960
“I like that Clean Taste and Smooth Feeling in my Throat.”
“With the Baseball Players in the Big Leagues, CHESTERFIELD is a Big Favorite”
Advertisement by Liggett & Myers tobacco company, featuring star players Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox and Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals
LIFE Magazine
1947
1962 Dual Filter TAREYTON BASEBALL GUIDE AND RECORD BOOK
Published by the American Tobacco Company with The Sporting News
1962
“VICEROYS are Smoother!”
Magazine advertisement by Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company featuring Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman and catcher player Dale Long
1956
Professor,
Department of Family Medicine
Gerald Leon Wallace, MD, Endowed Chair in Family Medicine
College of Community Health Sciences
Director, Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
The University of Alabama
Collections Manager and Digital Archivist (2018-2022)
Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
The University of Alabama
Intern, Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society;
Graduate student, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alabama