Lucky Strike

Lucky Strike

Lucky Strike logo launched in 2013.
Product type	Cigarette
Produced by	British American Tobacco Japan Tobacco R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (in the U.S.)
Introduced	1871

Lucky Strike is an American brand of cigarettes owned by the British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top-selling cigarette brand in the United States during the 1930s.

Lucky Strike brand was introduced in 1871 by the company R.A. Patterson in the USA as chewing tobacco (many sources mention Matt Tellman as the founder of Luckies, but significant information about him does not exist). The founder of Luckies was inspired by the era's rush for gold searching. Only some of the gold diggers (about four out of 1000) were fortunate enough to find gold and this was often referred to as a lucky strike. By choosing this expression as the product's name, it meant consumers who were choosing the brand were lucky, as they were choosing a top-quality blend. Lucky Strike was a brand of chewing tobacco, and by the early 1900s, it had evolved into a cigarette.

The brand was first introduced by R.A. Patterson of Richmond, Virginia, in 1871 as cut-plug chewing tobacco and later a cigarette. In 1905, the company was acquired by the American Tobacco Company (ATC).

In 1917, the brand started using the slogan, "It's Toasted", to inform consumers about the manufacturing method in which the tobacco is toasted rather than sun-dried, a process touted as making the cigarettes taste delicious.

In the late 1920s, the brand was sold as a route to thinness for women, one typical ad said, "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet." Sales of Lucky Strikes increased by more than 300% during the first year of the advertising campaign. Sales went from 14 billion cigarettes in 1925 to 40 billion sold in 1930, making Lucky Strike the leading brand nationwide.

Lucky Strike's association with radio music programs began during the 1920s on NBC. By 1928, the bandleader and vaudeville producer B. A. Rolfe was performing on radio and recording as "B.A. Rolfe and his Lucky Strike Orchestra" for Edison Records. In 1935, ATC began to sponsor Your Hit Parade, featuring North Carolina tobacco auctioneer Lee Aubrey "Speed" Riggs (later, another tobacco auctioneer from Lexington, Kentucky, F.E. Boone, was added). The weekly radio show's countdown catapulted the brand's success, remaining popular for 25 years. The shows capitalized on the tobacco auction theme and each ended with the signature phrase "Sold, American".