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| Product type | Cigarette |
|---|---|
| Produced by | Imperial Tobacco |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Introduced | 1969; 56 years ago (1969) |
| Carcinogenicity:IARC group 1 | |
Regal is a British brand ofcigarettes. It is currently owned and manufactured byImperial Tobacco.
The coupon cigarette was originally released asEmbassy Regal Filter in 1969.[1] The brand became very popular and sold coupon cigarettes until around 1999. Classed as a "premium" brand cigarette, they are one of the most expensive cigarette products available in the United Kingdom.[2] Regal are very popular inScotland,Northern Ireland and in the north ofEngland; further south Regal's sister brandEmbassy is more popular.[citation needed] Regal is available in king size and regular filter size.
In 2014 the cigarette factory inNottingham that produced Regal cigarettes closed and production was moved to Germany and Poland.[3]
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In the 1990s, Imperial Tobacco launched an advertising campaign featuring an everyman named Reg who offered his dad-humour insights on various subjects. The first ad read, "Reg on Smoking: I smoke 'em because my name's on 'em." As he held his fingers over the 'al' in Regal. More adverts followed, such as "Reg on train-spotting: "There's one." and "Reg on party politics: 'If you drop ash on the carpet you won't get invited again.'"[4]
Imperial Tobacco claimed that Reg did not encourage children to smoke, as the character was viewed as "repulsive and far from cool".[4] However, the campaign was eventually withdrawn because medical researchers discovered that the stupid humour of the ads appealed mostly to young adolescents, whereas adults 33–55 years old, who were supposedly the target group for the campaign, did not identify with Reg.[5]
In April 2002,The Daily Telegraph reported thatmiddlemen were offering supposedlyduty-free Regal andSilk Cut cigarettes to consumers. These products turned out to be illegally counterfeited in Chinese factories on the border betweenFujian andGuangdong provinces and were highly toxic. Alongside thehealth risks of smoking, the cigarettes were produced in unhygienic factory conditions and included tobacco sweepings,sawdust, dirt, banned chemicals as well as high levels oftar andnicotine. These counterfeits cost £2.5 billion in lost revenue in 2001 and were thought to account for 'at least a quarter of all the cigarettes smoked in Britain' in that year according toHM Treasury.[6][7]
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1Australia only;2Brands ofHabanos, a 50:50 joint venture between Imperial Tobacco andCubatabaco;350% share;4formerly, "Commonwealth Brands" | |||||||
