Hamlet (cigar)'s Slogans & Taglines

Hamlet was launched in the UK in September 1964 by Gallaher Group (now a division of Japan Tobacco). Produced at the Freeman's factory in Cardiff, Wales, these machine-made cigars blended tobacco from Brazil, Cuba, and Java with a Connecticut shade wrapper, earning them the moniker "the mild cigar." In 1966, the advertising agency Collett Dickenson Pearce created the iconic campaign "Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet," featuring men finding solace in a Hamlet after comical misfortunes, set to Jacques Loussier's jazz rendition of Bach's "Air on the G String." The ads ran on British television until the 1991 tobacco advertising ban, returned to cinemas in 1996, and concluded in 1999 with the modified tagline "Happiness will always be a cigar called Hamlet." For nearly half a century, Hamlet accounted for half of all cigars sold in Britain, cementing its place as one of the nation's most memorable advertising icons.