One of America’s most popular cigarette brands of all time, Pall Mall has the status of an industry icon. This is partly due to the fact that it has been mentioned in quite a few popular works of literature and films. The list includes, for instance, the works of authors Kurt Vonnegut and Stephen King. Probably the best-known example of celebrity endorsement has been the film star Lee Marvin.
The Pall Mall logo has undergone multiple modifications. Hardly a surprise, taking into consideration its more than 120-year history. Technically speaking, even now there are subtle variations in the pack design, and it’s possible to say in which country or region one or another pack of cigarettes has been bought. Then again, the very core of the logo has remained intact.
What is Pall Mall
The Pall Mall cigarettes are made by two companies. In the US, it is manufactured by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, while internationally the products are made by British American Tobacco. At some points, it was R. J. Reynolds’ best-selling brand, while British American Tobacco calls it its “leading global Value-for-Money Brand”.
Similar to many other logotypes, the visual brand identity comprises an emblem and a wordmark. However, while other companies tend to use these two elements next to each other, in one or two possible positions, Pall Mall uses another approach. The seal and the company name have been positioned in different parts of the package and are rather independent of each other.
The wordmark showcases the name of the brand in large art nouveau glyphs. The best-known version features a type with pronounced serifs. The serifs at the right ends of the “L’s” are especially long and visible. The horizontal bar in the “A’s” here is rather high.
However, you may also come across versions of the Pall Mall logo in a simpler sans serif typeface, where the bar in the “A’s” is lower than average.
What makes the wordmark distinctive, though, is that the letters are quite high, elongated, and narrow. Yet, if we make a point of delving into the history of the logo, we can come across versions, where the type wasn’t that narrow and elongated. For instance, the company’s archives have preserved a 1918 Pall Mall ad from a New York newspaper, in which the wordmark features rather wide letters.
However, even in these versions, there is the iconic lion emblem. While it, too, has been redrawn more than once, the main theme has stood the test of time.
There are two lions with crowns on their heads. They are facing each other. The animals are pawing the sides of a shield (coat-of-arms) with a knight’s helmet on top. In some versions, the coat-of-arms is rather detailed, while in others it is pretty abstract. In some versions, there is not a helmet but a crown on the top of the shield. Also, the number of details may vary from one logo to another. Still, you can see that it has effectively been one and the same logo.
You can often come across versions, where the emblem comprises a banner that reads “In hoc signo vinces”, which in translation from Latin means “By this sign shall you conquer”.
For much of its history, the Pall Mall logo was given in white over the blue background. However, the palette has been subject to multiple changes, for various reasons. For instance, in 2007, the packaging color of the Ultra Lights was modified from light blue to orange, because customers would confuse the Ultra Lights and the Lights. Two years later, the flavor descriptors on the hard packs were replaced by color designations.
The wordmark in a narrow and high typeface is an essential part of the visual brand identity, without which the logo would lose its recognizability.