In 1963 Liggett & Myers introduced the Lark brand with its trademark charcoal filter in an effort to halt a five year downward drift in sales. 1 The distinguishing feature of the brand, both in terms of physical characteristics and taste was the 3 piece “Keith” filter, the middle section of which contains small charcoal granules, which purportedly reduces the harshness of the cigarette’s smoke.
Liggett & Myers underwent several corporate name changes over the ensuing years but kept the Lark brand in their product mix until 1998, when Liggett Vector Brands Inc. sold Lark, along with the L&M & Chesterfield brands, for $300 million to Philip Morris Companies Inc., later known as the Altria Group. (The sale involved only domestic rights Philip Morris already owned the international rights to the three brands, which it had purchased in the late 1970s.) 2 As of 2008, Lark continues to be manufactured and sold by Philip Morris USA, a subsidiary of Altria Group. 3
Since its introduction and despite several prominent advertising campaigns, Lark has never held a large share of the U.S. cigarette market. As of 2008 update , the brand had less than 1% of the U.S. market share, but was extremely popular in Japan. citation needed
Packaging and ingredients edit
Lark is currently sold in the following packages
- Lark Red Pack (Full Flavor) Soft Kings and 100s
- Lark White Pack (Lights) Soft Kings and 100s
The Lark Soft Pack contains the following ingredients (listed in descending order by weight) and tar and nicotine content 4
- Tobacco
- Clove
- Water
- Sugars (Sucrose and/or Invert Sugar and/or High Fructose Corn Syrup)
- Propylene Glycol
- Glycerol
- Licorice Extract
- Diammonium Phosphate
- Ammonium Hydroxide
- Cocoa and Cocoa Products
- Carob Bean and Extract
- Natural and Artificial Flavors
- Tar (12 mg)
- Nicotine (1.0 mg)
Lark which is sold in Japan
- Lark Full Flavor(Soft/Box/100’s Box)
- Lark Milds(Soft/Box/100’s Box)
- Lark Classic Milds(Box)
- Lark Super Milds(Box/100’s Box)
- Lark Extra Milds(Box/100’s Box)
- Lark Ultra One(Box/100’s Box)
- Lark Menthol X(Box)
- Lark Milds Menthol(Box)
- Lark Super Menthol(Box)
- Lark Ultra Menthol(Box/100’s Box)
- Lark Mint Splash(Box(Menthol Mint Capsule))
Advertising history edit
From its introduction in 1963, the brand came in a maroon colored package with white print (the trademark shield was initially white but was soon changed to gold along with some of the other graphics). And for most of the brand s life it has sported the motto Richly Rewarding, yet Uncommonly Smooth.
Although Philip Morris continues to promote the brand heavily in Japan, it receives little to no domestic advertising. This would explain why its share of the U.S. market has declined over the years since experts generally agree that cigarette brands usually lose market share when they are no longer promoted. 5
Past advertising campaigns, however, have been conspicuous. As expected, much of the advertising, particularly that in print, centered on the charcoal filter and its effect on taste. 6 Probably the most extensively run and best remembered advertisement, however, was a television spot from the 1960s in which an off screen narrator exhorted those on the street to show us your Lark pack. Meanwhile, throughout the piece the William Tell Overture blared while the words have a Lark, have a Lark, have a Lark today were sung to the overture s melody. Everyone it seemed had a pack of Larks and was only too happy to show them. 1
Another notable advertisement campaign from the early 1970s featured a hot air balloon with the Lark brand name and colors, as seen here 2 and here 3 . The balloon was a symbol for the “smoothness” of Lark cigarettes. 4
Lark was also advertised in the 1980s with James Bond style appearances by Timothy Dalton and Roger Moore. Future Bond Pierce Brosnan also advertised Larks in two commercials that aired only in Japan.
Parodies edit
- On George Carlin’s album FM & AM, Carlin insinuates that “Show us your Lark” is a hidden sexual innuendo he remarks, “Don’t try that Lark thing in the Bowery those guys will show you their Larks, man.”
- A parody of the commercial was created by comedian Stan Freberg for Jeno’s Pizza Rolls. In it, tuxedo clad partygoers are asked to show their packages of frozen Jeno’s Pizza Rolls and they do. Ultimately a Lark executive (Barney Phillips) complains about the use of the music followed by the appearance of the Lone Ranger and Tonto asking the Lark executive about the same thing. 7
- A similar parody was presented in a fake commercial for Saturday Night Live during its first season, where the announcer urged everyone to “show us your guns”, in a similar manner as the Lark commercial, minus the singing. The parody first aired on SNL’s very first episode on October 11, 1975. 8
Health concerns edit
Because of its unique activated charcoal filter, from its inception Lark has been the subject of inquiry into whether it is safer or more harmful than cigarettes in general.
According to Anne Landman with the American Lung Association of Colorado, “The technique used in the marketing of Lark through hospitals and the medical profession was exactly similar to that used in the marketing of Kent in 1952.” Ms. Landman’s research, which she began in 1998, further reveals that Liggett & Myer’s marketing campaign several months before the release of the Surgeon General’s 1964 Report on Smoking and Health was directed at creating the rumor that medical scientists endorsed Lark as the safest cigarette. This marketing technique is credited for Lark’s sales surpassing those of Kent in the Buffalo area and nearly doing so in the Houston area. 9
Perhaps the biggest controversy about the reputed safety of Lark cigarettes was created by the publication of It Is Safe to Smoke by scientist Lloyd Mallan. Mallan recounts the findings of numerous scientists who all conclude based on the research conducted that smoking can be rendered harmless or considerablely less harmful if the cigarette is equipped with a charcoal filter. The only other brand in the United States at the time with a charcoal filter was Tareyton, whose filter had a different structure from Lark and was deemed to be less effective. 10 Hawthorne Publishing, however, took the book off the market in 1967 after a congressional investigation was launched into allegations that the tobacco industry had financed it. 11
Subsequent research questioned whether the charcoal filter might have actually made Lark a more dangerous cigarette. A paper published in March 1997 by J.L. Pauly, et al., offered the following conclusion
Charcoal granules are incorporated into cigarette filters to aid in removing toxins in cigarette smoke. In studies of Lark, a popular American cigarette with a charcoal filter, charcoal granules were observed on the filter surface, and were released from the filter when the cigarettes were smoked. During smoking, the toxin containing charcoal granules are inhaled or ingested. The specific adverse health effects of inhaling or ingesting carbon granules have not been addressed nevertheless, the smoker, as an educated consumer, should be informed of the possible health risks.
12
References edit
List of countries by cigarette consumption per capita – wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
How much nicotine in a marlboro menthol cigarette
This is a list of countries by annual per capita consumption of tobacco cigarettes.
Cigarettes are smoked by over 1.1 billion people. While smoking rates have leveled off or declined in developed nations, in developing nations tobacco consumption continues to rise at a rate of around 3.4% per annum. citation needed
Smoking rates in the United States have dropped by half from 1965 to 2006 falling from 42% to 20.8% of adults, 1 with further significant decline to 18 percent by 2012. 2 There are large regional differences in smoking rates, with Kentucky, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Mississippi topping the list, and Idaho, California and Utah at significantly lower rates. 3
In Australia the incidence of smoking is in decline, with figures from 2011 13 showing 16.1% of the population (over 18) to be daily smokers, a decline from 22.4% in 2001. Young adults are the most likely age group to smoke, with a marked decline in smoking rates with increasing age. The prevalence of smoking is strongly associated with socioeconomic disadvantage low earners , with over double the rate in the most disadvantaged quintile of the population as compared to the least. 4
List edit Ranking Country Number of cigarettes
per adult per year
1 Serbia 2,869 2 Bulgaria 2,822 3 Greece 2,795 4 Russia 2,786 5 Moldova 2,479 6 Ukraine 2,401 7 Slovenia 2,369 8 Bosnia and Herzegovina 2,278 9 Belarus 2,266 10 Montenegro 2,157 11 Lebanon 2,138 12 Czech Republic 2,125 13 South Korea 1,958 14 Republic of Macedonia 1,934 15 Kazakhstan 1,934 16 Azerbaijan 1,877 17 Japan 1,841 18 Kuwait 1,812 19 Spain 1,757 20 Switzerland 1,722 21 China 1,711 22 Austria 1,650 23 Tunisia 1,628 24 Croatia 1,621 25 Armenia 1,620 26 Cyprus 1,620 27 Poland 1,586 28 Estonia 1,523 29 Hungary 1,518 30 Italy 1,475 31 Belgium 1,455 32 Denmark 1,413 33 Romania 1,404 34 Slovakia 1,403 35 Turkey 1,399 36 Malta 1,378 37 Jordan 1,372 38 Cuba 1,261 39 Albania 1,116 40 Portugal 1,114 41 Trinidad and Tobago 1,106 42 Egypt 1,104 43 Indonesia 1,085 44 Tajikistan 1,046 45 Germany 1,045 46 Argentina 1,042 47 Georgia 1,039 48 Monaco 1,038 49 Israel 1,037 50 Australia 1,034 51 United States 1,028 52 Syria 1,013 53 Ireland 1,006 54 Vietnam 1,001 55 Kyrgyzstan 0,942 56 Luxembourg 0,928 57 Iraq 0,864 58 Chile 0,860 59 France 0,854 60 Oman 0,852 61 Philippines 0,838 62 Libya 0,818 63 Canada 809 64 Saudi Arabia 0,809 65 Lithuania 804 66 Netherlands 0,801 67 Mauritius 0,787 68 Latvia 0,785 69 Andorra 784 70 Algeria 0,775 71 Uruguay 0,770 72 Brunei 751 73 United Kingdom 0,750 74 Sweden 715 75 Finland 0,671 76 Papua New Guinea 0,670 77 Bahrain 0,661 78 Iran 0,657 79 North Korea 0,650 80 Nauru 0,626 81 Paraguay 0,619 82 United Arab Emirates 0,583 83 Comoros 0,583 84 New Zealand 0,579 85 Seychelles 0,565 86 Thailand 0,560 87 Mongolia 0,555 88 Singapore 0,547 89 Malaysia 0,539 90 Namibia 0,534 91 Norway 0,534 92 Fiji 0,530 93 Costa Rica 0,529 94 Brazil 0,504 95 Gabon 0,501 96 Morocco 0,500 97 Venezuela 0,496 98 Iceland 0,477 99 Pakistan 0,468 100 South Africa 0,459 101 Cambodia 0,452 102 Uzbekistan 0,449 103 Laos 0,435 104 Nepal 0,420 105 Angola 0,414 106 Colombia 0,412 107 Yemen 0,402 108 Senegal 0,398 109 Equatorial Guinea 0,391 110 Nicaragua 0,377 111 Antigua and Barbuda 0,375 112 Mexico 0,371 113 Belize 0,367 114 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 0,351 115 Barbados 0,344 116 Cape Verde 0,339 117 Dominica 0,339 118 Botswana 0,336 119 Djibouti 0,309 120 Togo 0,307 121 Swaziland 0,303 122 The Bahamas 0,288 123 Saint Kitts and Nevis 0,287 124 Jamaica 0,283 125 Qatar 0,281 126 Madagascar 0,260 127 Saint Lucia 0,249 128 Guatemala 0,235 129 Dominican Republic 0,234 130 Grenada 0,229 131 Ecuador 0,227 132 Honduras 0,217 133 El Salvador 0,209 134 Mozambique 0,200 135 Panama 0,197 136 Sri Lanka 0,195 137 Myanmar 0,189 138 Zimbabwe 0,189 139 Bolivia 0,179 140 Sierra Leone 0,177 141 Maldives 0,170 142 Bangladesh 0,154 143 Ivory Coast 0,148 144 Kenya 0,144 145 Burundi 0,137 146 Peru 0,137 147 Turkmenistan 0,135 148 Tanzania 0,132 149 Mali 0,127 150 Bhutan 0,120 151 Nigeria 0,116 152 Liberia 0,113 153 Burkina Faso 0,109 154 Democratic Republic of the Congo 0,105 155 Central African Republic 102 156 Haiti 100 157 Guinea Bissau 97 158 India 0,096 159 Rwanda 0,094 160 Cameroon 0,093 161 Chad 0,086 162 Mauritania 0,086 163 Gambia 0,085 164 Sudan 75 165 Eritrea 0,074 166 Zambia 0,074 167 Benin 0,071 168 S o Tom and Pr ncipe 0,069 169 Somalia 67 170 Lesotho 0,062 171 Afghanistan 0,061 172 Suriname 0,057 173 Niger 0,052 174 Guyana 0,049 175 Malawi 0,048 176 Tonga 48 177 Ghana 0,044 178 Vanuatu 0,043 179 Ethiopia 0,042 180 Samoa 0,034 181 Tuvalu 0,029 182 Uganda 0,024 183 Kiribati 22 184 Solomon Islands 18 185 Guinea 9 References edit
- ERC. (2007). World Cigarettes 1 The 2007 Report. ERC Statistics Intl PIc. Population data is from Central Intelligence Agency. (2007). The World Factbook 2007. Washington Government Printing Office.