Antique Camel Cigarettes 12 x 18 Metal Sign For Sale

Camel cigarettes were introduced in the United States in 1913 by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. A pioneering brand in the American marketplace, it became Reynolds' first major cigarette brand and the first nationally marketed cigarette in the United States. It was the first cigarette in the United States to use a blend of Turkish, Virginia, and Burley tobaccos, which proved to be enormously popular with the smoking public and would spawn many competitors (the first of which, Lucky Strike, was introduced in 1916). Camels were also the first manufactured cigarette to be sold in packages of twenty--prior to 1913, cigarette smokers rolled their own, and there was thought to be no market for pre-made cigarettes.

One part of Camel's success was the combination of high quality tobaccos along with the brand's low price (originally 10 cents for a package of 20). Until the 1950s, Camels were consistently the top- or second-selling brand (Lucky Strikes being their nearest competition). Indeed, the city of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where the R. J. Reynolds factory was located, was nicknamed "Camel City" owing to the brand's popularity. Their blend was harmonized in a way that provided a balanced nicotine content and which smoked considerably easier in contrast to the much harsher brands popular in the 1910s and 1920s.