Tobacco advertising in the United States has a long and storied history, beginning with the Lorillard brothers' advertisement of their tobacco and tobacco products in a local New York newspaper in 1789. For the next 70 years, advertising of tobacco and other products was limited to unadorned ads in local or regional newspapers. It was the tobacco industry that was at the forefront of developing modern and innovative advertising techniques. Tobacco companies also strategically placed products and advertisements in stores and gas stations at eye level for children. Magazines and newspapers were an effective means of advertising, as they allowed tobacco brands to target a greater number and variety of potential customers.
Women were also targeted by the tobacco industry, with companies continuing to produce women-specific brands. In 1998, the four largest tobacco companies in the United States - Philip Morris (now Altria), R. J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, and Lorillard - spent over $8 billion on advertising and promotional activities. The first known advertisement for nicotine in the United States was about tobacco and tobacco products, published in the New York Journal in 1789. In the last quarter of the 19th century, magazines began publishing advertisements for different brands of cigarettes, pipe tobacco, and chewing tobacco.
