Cigarette brands from the 1980s - UK
What were the most popular cigarette brands in the UK in the 1980s?
These were the most popular cigarettes in the UK in 1980.
- Benson & Hedges Special Filter (king size) - 12.3%
- Player's No 6 Filter (small) - 5.8%
- Embassy Filter (medium) - 5.2%
- Silk Cut King Size (filter) - 4.9%
- Embassy Regal (filter, small) - 4.7%
- Embassy No 1 (filter, small) - 4.2%
- Rothmans King Size (filter) - 4.2%
- Player's No 6 Filter King Size - 4.0%
- John Player King Size (filter) - 4.0%
- Embassy Regal King Size (filter) - 2.7%
- Dunhill King Size (filter) - 2.0%
- Park Drive (mini, plain) - 2.5%
- Woodbine (small, plain) - 2.0%
Source: How the brands ranked by Maxwell International Estimates, published July 1982
The 1980s saw the continuing decline of the 1970s' most popular cigarette, Player's No 6. By 1984 it had dropped to a tiny 2% market share.
At the same time king-size brands were on the rise. Benson & Hedges Special Filter increased its market share. By the end of the decade, it took over 20% of the UK cigarette market. Other king-size brands joined it. John Player Special King Size and Embassy Regal King Size also did well in the 1980s.
Silk Cut, backed by those famous advertisements by Saatchi and Saatchi, did well in the 1980s. It was a low-tar cigarette with an upmarket image. It achieved a market share of over 9.7% in 1989.
These were the most popular cigarettes in the UK in 1989.
- Benson & Hedges Special Filter - 20.6%
- Silk Cut - 9.7%
- John Player Special/ John Player King Size - 9.1%
- Berkeley - 9.0%
- Embassy Regal - 8.5%
- Lambert & Butler - 6.6%
- Embassy Filter - 6.5%
- Dorchester (R J Reynolds) - 2.9%
- Marlboro (Philip Morris) - 2.4%
- Raffles (Philip Morris) - 2.4%
- Player's No 6 Filter King Size - 4.0%
- Dunhill 1.3%
Source: The Maxwell Consumer Industry Report, Part I, Interational Tobacco, by John C Maxwell Jr, 6 April 1993
Although Philip Morris first started advertising Marlboro in the 1970s. It only achieved modest market shares in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s.
By Steven Braggs, October 2023
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Cigarette brands in the 1960s - UK
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