Assorted cigarette packets

16 assorted cigarette packets, 1920-50.

This shows a selection of cigarettes available in the United Kingdom between the 1920s and the 1950s from various British tobacco companies. The links between smoking and health risks such as lung cancer only began to be made in the 1950s, particularly through the research done by Richard Doll and Austin Bradford Hill. However, their views were not immediately supported and it took some time for them to become accepted.

Unlike modern cigarette packaging, these examples offer no hint about any dangers to health. Instead of large graphic warnings, they sport distinct imagery and colours to create brand recognition in what became a hugely competitive market in the twentieth century.