Winston Cigarettes: The Choice of Elegance

Winston Cigarettes

Cigarettes have been around for a long time and they have also undergone significant transformations and developments in terms of variety, flavors, etc. Winstons cigarettes are one of the most highly rated cigarette brands in the US that have achieved widespread popularity among cigarette aficionados. Winston Cigarettes are currently owned and manufactured by the company ITC Brands which is a subsidiary of the larger conglomerate Imperial Tobacco in the United States.

The origins of the company date way back to the 1950s when R.J Reynolds Tobacco Company introduced the brand to the US market and managed to take over a significant share of the market in a relatively short period. By 1966, Winston had become the top cigarette manufacturing company in the world. Its iconic slogan “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should ” resonated among smokers particularly in the US but also in other parts of the world.

Winston grew to become one of the most popular cigarette brands in Puerto Rico in the 1980s. Currently, Winston Cigarettes has been shown to have around the 7th highest market share in the global cigarette market space and the brand is owned by Japan Tobacco outside the US. The US version of Winston cigarettes has also been made additive free. This policy was adopted and implemented in 2005. In July 2014, the Winston brand was sold by Reynolds American (the parent company of R.J. Reynolds) to Imperial Tobacco for a value of $7.1 billion. It is currently owned by a spin-off subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco known as ITG Brands.

Currently, the Winston brand of cigarettes has acquired large-scale global popularity and is sold in over a whopping 60 countries all over the world. It is found across the 4 primary continents and comes in a plethora of various flavors that delight the taste buds of people from Iran and the Netherlands, to Ethiopia and Nepal.

In the US as of 2022, there are around 7-8 different flavors of Winston cigarettes that can be found. These can be summarized in the following section :

  • Winston Red (Full Flavor) – Kings, 100s
  • Winston Gold (Lights) – Kings, 100s
  • Winston White (Ultra Lights) – Kings, 100s
  • Winston Black (Bold) – Kings, 100s
  • Winston Select – Kings

Furthermore, the brand introduced new menthol-flavored cigarettes under the banner of Winston Green. Thus, Winston has consistently sought to adapt its product to suit the changing tastes and preferences of potential as well as existing consumers. This level of adaptability has made Winston cigarettes the ideal choice of many long-term cigarette connoisseurs as well as people who are experimenting with different cigarette varieties.

Based upon detailed reviews online as well as first-hand experience of consumers, Winston cigarettes are lighter and have an airier feel to them. Many consistent buyers of Winston cigarettes consider its light flavor to be the product’s main USP. Winston cigarettes are ideal for a night of heavy partying or cafe hopping. The light and ultra-light flavor variants have been especially shown to be preferred by women along with the recent mint-flavored ones.

“No additives, no bull”- this was the slogan that Winston Cigarettes adopted in 1997 to put across the point that this was a brand of cigarettes that was composed of 100% tobacco. While some top US brands contained 6% additives and 94% tobacco, Winston boasted of being pure. The argument that Winston Cigarettes was selling at the time was that only tobacco and no additives is meant to make the smoker feel hardcore and steer clear of the harmful effects of additives. However, it has been a topic of much debate whether all tobacco and no additives are better healthwise for the smoker or not. The use of only tobacco was the USP of this company as Winston Cigarette advertisements sold the product using phrases like “real cigarette” and “straight up” to describe them.

Conclusion

Winston Cigarettes has taken the market by storm since its inception. The quality of its cigarettes has appealed to smokers in the US for years now. With its “no bull” slogan, the brand has reached out to people looking for a hardcore experience while smoking that is unlike other brands which use additives. It has made a huge name by sponsoring popular sports events like NASCAR, Drag Racing, the 1982 FIFA World Cup, and others. As of 2017, it held the seventh highest occupying market for cigarettes in the USA. The company continues to grow and introduce varieties every year which helps it maintain this position among the people.