Kool (cigarette)
Kool (stylized as KOOL) is an American brand of menthol cigarette, currently owned and manufactured by ITG Brands LLC, a subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco Company.[1] Kool cigarettes sold outside of the United States are manufactured by British American Tobacco.
Product type
History[edit]
In 1931, Brown and Williamson launched "Penguin" as an unfiltered 70-millimeter "regular" menthol cigarette,[2] with a package featuring "a Penguin with its beak raised and its heavy wings raised in a sort of mid-flourish."[3] In 1933, the brand was renamed Kool, though it retained the as-yet unnamed penguin mascot.[2][4]
Kool enjoyed continued success through the 1950s, with a 1953 Roper survey showing that two percent of white Americans and five percent of African Americans preferred the Kool brand.[5]
Growing public concern about the health risks associated with smoking prompted Brown and Williamson responded to release filtered varieties of Kool: an 85-millimeter "king-sized" version in the 1960s, followed by a 100-millimeter or "long" version in the 1970s. The 1980s saw the introduction of Kool lights and a loss of market share to other menthol brands, such as Newport.
In 2003, Brown and Williamson purchased the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, making Kool a Reynolds brand.[6] The iconic green and white pack, virtually unchanged for some seventy years, was overhauled, and the original unfiltered Kool cigarette was discontinued. These changes did little to boost sales.
In 2015 a merger between Reynolds American and the Lorillard Tobacco Company brought the Kool brand into the Imperial Tobacco Company portfolio of properties.[7]
Sport sponsorship[edit]
Kool was the main sponsor of Team KOOL Green in the CART series from the 1997 season until the 2002 season. In 2002, after the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement passed, Kool cigarettes could not be displayed on the cars for the IRL's Indianapolis 500, and the logo was replaced with 7-Eleven.[19][20]
Markets[edit]
Kool cigarettes are mainly sold in the United States, but also were or still are sold in Canada, Honduras, Antigua, Bahamas, Jamaica, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain, Japan and Australia.[21][22][23][24] The Estonian Patent Office denied permission for the Kool trademark to be used in Estonia because the name means "school" in the Estonian language.
Kool is available in the following styles in the United States:
In 2023, ITG Brands introduced four new non-menthols to prepare for a possible flavored tobacco ban by the FDA and to expand their sales to states that already have a ban in place. The green and blue boxes look identical to the menthol version to appeal to smokers who are used to the brand. [25]
Previously, Kool XL, a wider cigarette, was available.