Product type Cigarette Previous owners R.J. Reynolds Tobacco | Introduced 1956 | |
 | ||
Owner Imperial Tobacco (U.S. only)
Japan Tobacco (Outside the U.S.) | ||
Salem is a brand of cigarettes introduced in 1956 by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company as the first filter-tipped menthol cigarette. Its name (along with that of the Winston brand) derives from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the city where RJR was founded and headquartered. Salem cigarettes are unique in that they are blended with Asian Menthol rather than the traditional mainstream Menthol. 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.
Contents
In the 1983 prison movie Bad Boys, both Salem and Winston cigarettes are seen being offered to and purchased by Sean Penn's character.
History
Until the early 2000s, Salem was a sponsor of the Hong Kong Open, an ATP tennis tournament, which attracted a number of top ranking professional players. As a result of the sponsorship, it was titled the Salem Open. Salem also sponsored a number of events there including concerts throughout Asia.
In 2001, as with legislation restricting tobacco sponsorship in Hong Kong, the tournament sponsorship was proven to be controversial, when its official logo was altered to include the logo of Perrier, causing anti-smoking campaigners to claim that the organisers exploited a loophole in its sponsorship clause.
In 2015, Salem was sold to Imperial Tobacco Group as a divestiture during Reynolds' acquisiton of Lorillard Tobacco Company.