Kent is a brand of
cigaretteA cigarette is a product consumed through smoking and manufactured out of cured and finely cut tobacco leaves and reconstituted tobacco, often combined with other additives, then rolled or stuffed into a paper-wrapped cylinder...
s.
Viceroy (cigarette)Viceroy cigarettes are made by Brown & Williamson, which was owned by British American Tobacco, and, since 2004, by Reynolds American Inc., a joint venture between the U.S. branch of British American Tobacco and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company....
s were the first to introduce cigarette filters in 1936. Kent's Micronite filter was introduced shortly after the publication of a series of articles in
Reader's DigestReader's Digest is a monthly general-interest family magazine co-founded in 1922 by Lila Bell Wallace and DeWitt Wallace, and based in Chappaqua, New York, United States of America...
in 1952 entitled "Cancer by the Carton," that scared American consumers into seeking out a filter brand at a time when most brands were filterless.
From March 1952 until at least May 1956, however, the Micronite filter in Kent cigarettes contained carcinogenic blue asbestos.
Kent is a brand of
cigaretteA cigarette is a product consumed through smoking and manufactured out of cured and finely cut tobacco leaves and reconstituted tobacco, often combined with other additives, then rolled or stuffed into a paper-wrapped cylinder...
s.
Viceroy (cigarette)Viceroy cigarettes are made by Brown & Williamson, which was owned by British American Tobacco, and, since 2004, by Reynolds American Inc., a joint venture between the U.S. branch of British American Tobacco and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company....
s were the first to introduce cigarette filters in 1936. Kent's Micronite filter was introduced shortly after the publication of a series of articles in
Reader's DigestReader's Digest is a monthly general-interest family magazine co-founded in 1922 by Lila Bell Wallace and DeWitt Wallace, and based in Chappaqua, New York, United States of America...
in 1952 entitled "Cancer by the Carton," that scared American consumers into seeking out a filter brand at a time when most brands were filterless.
From March 1952 until at least May 1956, however, the Micronite filter in Kent cigarettes contained carcinogenic blue asbestos. Kent now uses
charcoalCharcoal is the blackish residue consisting of impure carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood, sugar, bone char, or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
filters (a form of
activated carbonActivated carbon, also called activated charcoal or activated coal, is a form of carbon that has been processed to make it extremely porous and thus to have a very large surface area available for adsorption or chemical reactions....
).
The brand is a propriety of
British American TobaccoBritish American Tobacco Plc is a leading global tobacco company. It is based in London, United Kingdom and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:...
Nassi group.
The brand is named after Herbert Kent, a former executive at
Lorillard Tobacco CompanyLorillard Tobacco Company is the 18th oldest company in the United States and the nation's oldest tobacco company. They are the third largest American tobacco company and market cigarettes under the brand names Newport , Maverick, Old Gold, Kent, True, Satin, and Max...
.
Cultural references
- In the documentary, The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit
The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit is an archive footage documentary of the Beatles' first visit to America in February of 1964. It was filmed by renowned documentary filmmaking team Albert and David Maysles, using footage from their 1964 16mm documentary What's Happening! The Beatles In The USA,...
, the Beatles overhear a Kent cigarettes radio commercial, expressing sarcastic interest in it:
- Radio Announcer: Looking for a filtered cigarette that really satisfies?
- Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE , is an English singer-songwriter, poet, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record and film producer, painter, and animal rights and peace activist. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings, McCartney is the most successful songwriter in the history of popular music...
: Looking for one?
- Radio Announcer: One that will give you the pleasure you want in smoking.
- McCartney: I am, yes.
- Radio Announcer: Well, look no more. There is a cigarette that gives you the satisfaction you are looking for today.
- McCartney: Which one!?
- Radio Announcer: Kent!
- John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE was an English rock musician, singer-songwriter, author, and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles...
: KENT!
- Radio Announcer: With the exclusive Micronite filter.
- The brand was the co-sponsor of The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom which initially aired on CBS from October 3, 1961 and ran until June 1, 1966. The show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. A three-camera/studio audience format was used during production...
from 1962 through '66. Dick and several of his co-stars also appeared in "integrated commercials" for the sponsor's product at the end of the episodes sponsored by Kent. They also gave Dick and Mary Tyler MooreMary Tyler Moore is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television sitcoms.Moore is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show , in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in Minneapolis, and for her earlier role as Dick...
free cartons of Kents for their own personal use, but as Mary recalled in her 1995 autobiography After All, she often traded hers at a local store for her own preferred brand.
- Kent Cigarettes was the brand of choice of many of the rich and famous. The most famous Kent smoker was entertainer extraordinre Dean "Dino" Martin...whose ever present cigarette was a Kent.
- In communist-era Romania, Kent cigarettes were used as a de facto currency; goods and services could be purchased with packets or cartons of Kent cigarettes.
Advertising
In 1965, the
Ray Conniff SingersThe Ray Conniff Singers were a vocal group established 1959 by composer-arranger-bandleader Ray Conniff...
had a hit song called "Happiness Is", which listed various examples of things that make people happy ("To a preacher, it's a prayer-prayer-prayer / To a
BeatleThe Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960 who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands in the history of popular music...
, it's a 'Yeah-Yeah-Yeah'" and so on). The same group, or a soundalike group, produced a series of commercials for Kent that were written to the same tune and style, with the punch line always being, "To a smoker, it's a Kent."