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I was watching the August 1985 edition of Crimewatch UK on YouTube and I was reminded about the murder reconstruction of Roy Page in Bristol and the fact that he owned a newsagent; his shop was more like a corner shop rather than just a newsagent, and his shop had a golden Benson and Hedges logo on the front of it where one would see a shop logo and the letters "R AND G (or whatever the other initials were) PAGE" in white letters on a black background next to it. Another shop had a John Player Special logo on it with identification next to it. The prominence of tobacco advertising as late as the 1980s being so much that brand names were listed in lieu of actual shop names and logos seem fascinating back then; they almost gave an illusion that they just sold those brands of cigarettes, or indeed, it gave an illusion that the shop owner was some insider working for a tobacco company and having the name of JPS is some sort of sponsorship or something.
It's also amazing that the shops in question would sell items for all the family and even children went in to order sweets and soft drinks (not quite tobacco or alcohol even if they are bad for them) but the shop front gives an adult-only illusion and a smokers-only biased illusion, giving tobacco brands more prominence outside an owner's shop, and I assume that the shopkeepers smoke and didn't pay too much attention to the health risks and lung cancer dangers either. Obviously, they sold tobacco otherwise they wouldn't have it displayed on the front. It made me assume that shopkeepers used to get commission for promoting these brands on the front of their shops as a way of earning extra money, even though the product was obviously unhealthy to even over 18s. It seemed the norm back then, just like the associations with pubs and drinking alcohol.
When did newsagents and corner shops had to stop displaying tobacco logos on the front? The 1990s or 2000s perhaps when tobacco advertising completely outlawed in the UK? I know that I haven't seen this on the front of shops for a couple of decades, and these days, Premier seems to be the name on almost half of corner shops and general stores which seemed to succeed Happy Shopper and before that Peacock. I know that billboard (you know, Clear Channel, JCDecaux, More O'Ferrall and those companies) had ceased to accept tobacco advertising in early 2005, around the same time that the now King Charles III had married Camilla. Lambert and Butler did a celebratory farewell advert around that time, and it was the very last one for tobacco which I can remember on a billboard in public. I believe that shopkeepers had to change their signs around the turn of the millennium, almost certainly around the time when magazines (and sometimes tabloid newspapers) had to stop publishing the ones for cigarettes, and the ones which had the white band at the bottom which usually said: "Low To Middle Tar; SMOKING KILLS; Government Health Officers", or similar words to that effect which seems to have first appeared from around 1971 onwards.
I wonder whether as youngsters, entering a newsagent with a huge Silk Cut logo on the front sign next to the owners' name which was tiny in comparison, and asking for a bottle of pop (with the deposit on the bottle, no doubt if returned), or a Mars Bar, when the entrance to the shop in question feels so adult-only on the front? All I can say that I am not sure when the tobacco names disappeared on the front of shops, but whenever it did, it was a day of common sense.
It's also amazing that the shops in question would sell items for all the family and even children went in to order sweets and soft drinks (not quite tobacco or alcohol even if they are bad for them) but the shop front gives an adult-only illusion and a smokers-only biased illusion, giving tobacco brands more prominence outside an owner's shop, and I assume that the shopkeepers smoke and didn't pay too much attention to the health risks and lung cancer dangers either. Obviously, they sold tobacco otherwise they wouldn't have it displayed on the front. It made me assume that shopkeepers used to get commission for promoting these brands on the front of their shops as a way of earning extra money, even though the product was obviously unhealthy to even over 18s. It seemed the norm back then, just like the associations with pubs and drinking alcohol.
When did newsagents and corner shops had to stop displaying tobacco logos on the front? The 1990s or 2000s perhaps when tobacco advertising completely outlawed in the UK? I know that I haven't seen this on the front of shops for a couple of decades, and these days, Premier seems to be the name on almost half of corner shops and general stores which seemed to succeed Happy Shopper and before that Peacock. I know that billboard (you know, Clear Channel, JCDecaux, More O'Ferrall and those companies) had ceased to accept tobacco advertising in early 2005, around the same time that the now King Charles III had married Camilla. Lambert and Butler did a celebratory farewell advert around that time, and it was the very last one for tobacco which I can remember on a billboard in public. I believe that shopkeepers had to change their signs around the turn of the millennium, almost certainly around the time when magazines (and sometimes tabloid newspapers) had to stop publishing the ones for cigarettes, and the ones which had the white band at the bottom which usually said: "Low To Middle Tar; SMOKING KILLS; Government Health Officers", or similar words to that effect which seems to have first appeared from around 1971 onwards.
I wonder whether as youngsters, entering a newsagent with a huge Silk Cut logo on the front sign next to the owners' name which was tiny in comparison, and asking for a bottle of pop (with the deposit on the bottle, no doubt if returned), or a Mars Bar, when the entrance to the shop in question feels so adult-only on the front? All I can say that I am not sure when the tobacco names disappeared on the front of shops, but whenever it did, it was a day of common sense.
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