Gold Dollar | 1953
A naval officer in a bicorne hat points ashore, a sailing ship lies at anchor, and beside him stand two figures in feathers and buckskin. Below, a sailor plays the accordion on a giant cigarette pack. This ad from November 1953 wraps Gold Dollar cigarettes in a tale of seafarers bringing home the pleasures of distant lands.
The copy claims that Gold Dollar was “die erste echte american blend” (the first real American blend), a mix of Oriental and Virginia tobaccos that had won smokers over “many years ago”. In post-war West Germany, anything American suggested modernity, and the name itself, a gold dollar, said so.
The accordion-playing sailor was the brand’s advertising figure in the 1950s; he also stood in tobacconists’ windows as a painted plaster figure.
The ad shows two things we see differently today. The Indigenous figures are an exotic backdrop taken from adventure stories, not real people with their own history. And smoking appears as a refined pleasure for “richtige Kenner” (true connoisseurs). Today the health risks of tobacco are well known, and tobacco advertising is largely banned in Germany.
Text in the ad
Seefahrer entdeckten die Genüsse der Ferne
Die Kunst, Lieblichkeit und Würze zu vereinen, haben uns oft die Seefahrer vermittelt. Sie brachten uns seltene Gewürze und die Kunst ihrer Anwendung. Doch erst die richtige Mischung bringt die wirkliche Feinheit beim Genuß fremdländischer Köstlichkeiten. Auch beim Tabak kommt es darauf an.
So gibt es seit Jahrzehnten die Gold Dollar-Blend
Amerikafahrer brachten diese Mischung: Die wunderbar anregende Duftfülle der ersten echten american blend eroberte vor vielen Jahren die Herzen der Raucher. Die heute so beliebte Mischung von Orient- und Virginiatabaken wurde in der Gold Dollar bereits im Anfang vollendet. Die Kenner dieses typischen Rauchgenusses wissen –
Gold Dollar bleibt, was sie war, › richtig – für richtige Kenner ‹
Translation:
Seafarers discovered the pleasures of distant lands
The art of combining sweetness and spice was often passed on to us by seafarers. They brought us rare spices and the art of using them. But only the right blend brings true refinement to the enjoyment of foreign delicacies. With tobacco, too, that is what counts.
That is how the Gold Dollar blend has existed for decades
America travellers brought this blend: the wonderfully stimulating richness of aroma of the first real American blend won smokers’ hearts many years ago. The blend of Oriental and Virginia tobaccos so popular today was perfected in Gold Dollar right from the start. Connoisseurs of this typical smoking pleasure know –
Gold Dollar stays what it was, › right – for real connoisseurs ‹
- Brand
- Gold Dollar
- Year
- 1953
- Decade
- 1950s
- Country
- Germany
- Medium
- Magazine
- Themes
- Tobacco
- Original publication
- Hören und Sehen, 1953
