T207 Red Cross (known examples)

[ZachS]

Originally Posted by frohme

The RedCross/LA connection is a tantalizing curiousity worth investigation

Here's something I found in Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly titled The Tobacco War by Earl Mayo from 1908:

Along with its cigarette interests the American Tobacco Company had acquired a certain amount of business in smoking tobacco, especially from the Duke and Kimball companies, which had several popular brands on the market. The American Tobacco Company thus found itself competing with the manufacturers of pipe tobacco and Mr. Duke next turned his attention to bringing these firms and also the manufacturers of plug tobacco into line.

Two of the largest of these concerns were the P. Lorillard Company and Liggett & Myers, of St. Louis, the latter said to be then the largest tobacco manufacturers in the world. These two firms did not take kindly to the arguments advanced by Mr. Duke, and he thereupon proceeded to apply a course of treatment designed to change their opinion of the advantages of industrial combination.

The campaign that followed was one of the most remarkable in recent business history, and it was waged on the part of the American Tobacco Company with Mr. Duke's favorite weapon, lavish advertising. The guns of the opposing forces were rival brands and these brands were pushed in every possible way with the jobbers, the retailers and the consumers. A single example will illustrate the scale on which the engagements were fought.

The American Tobacco Company brought out a brand of plug called "Battle-Ax." The very mention of the name will probably recall to readers the time when the name stared at one from every dead wall and fence, when the tags that accompanied it were collected by users of the weed and their young friends for the sake of the prizes that they brought, and when the dealers (to whom prizes also were offered) were eager to introduce it to their customers.

The pace was a hot one and it was set by Mr. Duke and his associates. Money was poured out in rivers, and even with the enormous sale developed by advertising there was a heavy deficit, but this did not trouble Mr. Duke. He was fighting not only for trade but for trade supremacy, and he knew that the bill would be settled later on.

A man prominently connected with the tobacco business is my authority for the statement that Mr. Duke said to him :--

"We sank $4,000,000 in making 'Battle-Ax' known and getting it established, but since then we have made $12,000,000 from it."

The influence which the popularity of an established brand exerts is well illustrated by an incident which occurred during the progress of this campaign.

At the time when the contest was at its height there were on the market two rival brands of " long-cut," one owned by the American Tobacco Company, and called "Honest," the other the ''Red Cross'' of the Lorillards. These two brands fought each other all over the country. In certain sections, however, "Red Cross" was so firmly entrenched that it seemed almost impossible for "Honest" to secure a foothold. This was notably the case in New Orleans, ''Red Cross'' being in great favor with the negro tobacco chewers there.

At that time it was customary in the tobacco business to make the same brand of varying strength to suit the demands of different markets. For instance, the ''Red Cross '' sold in New York was a lighter and milder quality than the "Red Cross" sold in New Orleans, the heavier and darker kind being demanded by the Southern market.

When several months had gone by and the effort to make '' Honest'' longcut popular in New Orleans had proved unavailing, a mistake was made by which a large quantity of the lighter stock of '' Red Cross '' prepared for the New York market was shipped to New Orleans, and the shops there were stocked with it. As soon as the consumer inserted his jaws in a specimen of the new supply of his favorite brand, however, he realized that it was different and less satisfactory than his previous purchases.

At the same time a supply of '' Honest '' which had been made especially heavy for the New Orleans market was put into the shops and almost immediately the sale of '' Red Cross'' began to fall off while "Honest" went to the front.

The fight continued with unabated vigor until 1898. The great firm of Liggett & Myers, as well as some of the smaller manufacturers, had declared that they never would sell out to '' the trust," but in 1898 this establishment, together with the Blackwell's Durham Company and the National Cigarette and Tobacco Company, was sold to the Union Tobacco Company, the capital of which was $10,000,000.

It was the general impression at the time that the Union Tobacco Company was formed to fight the American, but about six months after the consummation of this deal the American Tobacco Company took over the business of the Union Tobacco Company—and Mr. Duke was president of the American.

Originally Posted by frohme

Now if you want to talk Anonymous cards (i.e. Fac 3), that's another can of worms...

I DO!