Tar derby
Brand Size Tar ( mg )
Cavalier King 42.8
Old Gold King 41.7
Phillip Morris King 41.1
Chesterfield King 40.8
Raleigh King 39.3
Pall Mall King 38.6
Tareyton King 36.6
Phillip Morris Regular 35.3
Chesterfield Regular 32.7
Lucky Strike Regular 31.5
Kool Regular 31.3
Camel Regular 31.0
Old Gold Regular 30.9
The start of the great derby
In 1957 , two years after the FTC 's guidelines on cigarette advertisements were released , the Surgeon General issued the `` Joint Report of Study Group on Smoking and Health. ” The report stated , `` It is clear that there is an increasing and consistent body of evidence that excessive cigarette smoking is one of the causative factors in lung cancer , '' which solidified the Surgeon General ’ s position on tobacco . During the same year , Reader ’ s Digest included tar and nicotine measurements in their magazine for the first time since the early 1950s . July 1957 Consumer 's Digest Tar Measurements Plain Tips
The tar derby is the period in the 1950s and early 1960s marked by a rapid influx in both cigarette advertising focused on tar content measurements to differentiate cigarettes and brand introduction or repositioning focusing on filter technology. The period ended in 1959 after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman and several cigarette company presidents agreed to discontinue usage of tar or nicotine levels in advertisements.