Vantage Cigarettes Brand

Vantage is a brand of American cigarettes produced by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. It received its biggest advertising push in the 1970s and '80s but is now categorized as a 'non-support' brand; though R.J. Reynolds will not provide marketing support for Vantage, the company will keep up the brand's distribution where there is consumer demand.

R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR), based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and founded by R. J. Reynolds in 1874, is the second-largest tobacco company in the U.S. (behind Altria Group). RJR is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc. which in turn is 42% owned by British American Tobacco.

R. J. Reynolds brands include Camel, Kool, Winston, Salem, Doral, Eclipse, Export A and Pall Mall. Brands still manufactured but no longer receiving significant marketing support include Barclay, Belair, Capri, Carlton, GPC, Camel, Lucky Strike, Misty, Monarch, More, Now, Tareyton, Vantage, and Viceroy. The company also manufactures certain private-label brands. Five of the company's brands are among the top ten best selling cigarette brands in the United States, and it is estimated that one in three cigarettes sold in the country were manufactured by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. In 2006 R. J. Reynolds acquired the rights to the smokeless tobacco products Kodiak and Grizzly dip.

Vantage is a mid position brand when it comes to tar and nicotine content with the Full Flavor version around 9 MG of tar and the Lights version around 5 MG. Reynolds no longer provides and marketing support for Vantage making it hard to find at retail. This brand is much easier to find on line.

Vantage is notable for its innovative filter design. Rather than featuring a solid filter like most cigarette brands, Vantage's filter features a conical hole in its center. While seemingly as mysterious as Parliament's recessed filter, Vantage advertising from 1977 states that the reasoning behind the design is to give "smokers the flavor of a full-flavor cigarette without anywhere near the 'tar' or nicotine". Similarly, Vantage's packaging still features the slogan "Rich Taste, Low Tar" and promises 9 mg of tar and 0.8 mg of nicotine.

Vantage's current-day profile is rather low, but the brand pops up every so often. It is featured as the heroine's cigarette of choice in Lorrie Moore's short story "Willing" in her collection Birds of America and is seen being stubbed out by a minor character in Donna Tartt's bestselling The Secret History. Similarly, the final punch line of the film Reversal of Fortune comes as Jeremy Irons's Klaus von Bulow purchases "two packs Vantage" at a drug store. Bette Davis, who was well known for her smoking habit, changed her preferred cigarette from Lucky Strike to Vantage in the later years of her life.