Winston (cigarette)

Winston

A Marlboro ashtray and a pack of German Winston Red cigarettes
Product type	Cigarette
Owner	Imperial Tobacco (U.S. only) Japan Tobacco (Outside of the U.S.)
Introduced	1954
Previous owners	R.J. Reynolds Tobacco

Winston is an American brand of cigarette. It is owned and marketed by ITG Brands LLC. (A subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco Company) inside the U.S. and by Japan Tobacco outside the U.S. In recent history, Winston has been noted for its "additive-free" claims of its cigarettes.

Originally introduced in 1954 by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Winston quickly became one of the top selling cigarette brands and owing to the slogan "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should," it became the number one cigarette sold in the world by 1966, a position it held until 1972.

Winston then became the #2 cigarette, a position it continues to maintain today under ownership of Japan Tobacco outside of the U.S. while the American version of the brand has faced steadily declining sales, dropping to sixth place by 2005 in the last national survey. The American version of Winston is also known for its more recent claim of becoming additive free in the late 1990s. This in turn led to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission requiring Winston to clarify subsequent advertisements that the lack of additives did not result in a safer cigarette. In 1999 R.J. Reynolds was spun off from RJR Nabisco and subsequently sold its non-U.S. operations to Japan Tobacco. On July 15, 2014, Reynolds American (R.J. Reynolds parent company) agreed to purchase the Lorillard Tobacco Company for $27.4 billion and as a result, (to alleviate antitrust concerns) Winston, along with the KOOL, Maverick, and Salem cigarette brands was sold to Imperial Tobacco Group for $7.1 billion. On June 12, 2015, Reynolds American and Lorillard completed their merger and Winston officially fell under ownership of Imperial tobacco spinoff ITG brands.