Salem cigarettes are a cigarette trademark, which was presented to the market by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in 1956 as the original menthol cigarette equipped with a filter. The trademark was so named by Winston-Salem in North Carolina where RJR was created and had locations.
During many years, Salem was one of the well-promoted cigarette brands in the United States. After 1956, the Salem cigarettes were the one of those menthol cigarettes, which were worldwide marketed with a great success. At the end of 1960s, the brand’s motto (declared in music advertisements by TV and radio until it was forbidden on the 1st of January, 1971) was “You can take Salem out of the country, but…you can’t take the country out of Salem.”
After that, the promoters used the motto “Springtime… it happens every Salem”.
The Salem’s boxes were completely re-designed at the end of 1990s, when the new Black Labels with more smoothly packages appeared. At that time, the company also introduced single cigarettes with green filters, which were suitably named “The Lucky”. The name was based on the idea to flick the first cigarette in the pack upside down and consume it as the last one.
Salem is now distributed in two versions: Green Label and Black Label. The Green Label is promoted as mild-flavor cigarettes, the Black Labels are described as stronger or “harder” smoking products.
Salem cigarettes is an original mixture of the Asian Menthol, which is preferred to the usual prevailing Menthol. Now, it is produced by ITG Brands LLC, a filial of Imperial Tobacco Company. In 1983, Salem cigarettes were screened in the film Bad Boys where the Salem and Winston cigarettes were bought in one scene by Sean Penn’s film figure.
At the beginning of 2000s, Salem cigarettes were a donator of the Hong Kong Open, an ATP tennis tournament, which collected a majority of high-rank skilled competitors. As a reward for the donation, the brand was named as the Salem Open. Salem cigarettes also supported many competitions and even concerts in the Asian region.
After the tobacco support of events was limited on the legal basis in 2001, the promoters changed the policy and added the logo of Perrier to the company logo although it resulted in multiple protests and anti-tobacco campaigns.