cigarette?

This apparently hastily created lantern slide served to remind patrons that interval was a great opportunity to partake of a particular brand of cigarette. Interval – time for a Capstan  ca 1900 – 1930 is from the Reginald Wood collection of glass lantern slides in the State Library of Victoria.

From The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (3 March 1938) a photograph of young women smoking before the general public became aware of its addictive and negative health impacts.

From The National Archives of Australia –

The move to a ban on tobacco advertising

In 1973 the Whitlam government decided to phase out tobacco advertising. The change in government in 1975 meant the Fraser ministry faced a decision on whether to implement or delay the total ban. In a submission to Federal Cabinet, Health Minister Ralph Hunt outlined the medical evidence against smoking and its financial and health costs to the community.

In an opposing Cabinet submission, Post and Telecommunications Minister Eric Robinson argued that the government needed more time to evaluate the issues and to hear from interested parties. Supported by the Department of Primary Industry and the Department of Industry and Commerce, he endorsed the tobacco, broadcasting and advertising industries.

Despite Robinson’s arguments Cabinet determined to continue with the ban and it came into effect on 1 September 1976.

Advertising and promoting cigarettes was par for the course at exhibitions and annual shows like this award-winning display in Brisbane in 1902.  Today in Australia, cigarettes are packaged and sold in plain paper with vivid health warnings the only ‘decoration’.

Queensland Figaro – 4 September 1902

ALFRED GROSS & CO – Tobacco Pavilion Exhibited by Alfred Gross and Co – Cabinet of Tobacco Exhibited by Alfred Gross & Co

Alfred Gross & Co make a special feature this year of the W. D. and H. O. Wills’s trophy, a pavilion-like structure which was decorated early on Wednesday with a broad blue ribbon in honour of the fact that it had received a general order of merit. The principal lines displayed (were Capstan plug and Keystone light and dark tobaccos, together with the well-known Luxury, Sweet Briar, Three Castles, and Capstan cigarettes. In a handsome glass case nearby is shown all Wills’s attractive goods put up in airtight tins. The trophy is attracting a good deal of attention, for the goods displayed upon it are old friends of all smokers, and they are sure to “draw” in every sense, apart from the general attractiveness of the pavilion. Prize Schedule.-Tobacco, Cigars, Cigarettes, &c. Machinery and appliances for manufacture of same: Alfred Gross & Co., Elizabeth Street, tobacco trophy, imported and colonial; also, cigarette trophy, American leaf, each awarded first order of merit.