State Express 555 — BrandWiki

State Express 555, known as 555 (Three-Fives), is a Westminster, London-based cigarette originally manufactured in the United Kingdom by the Ardath Tobacco Company. The overseas rights to the brand excluding the United Kingdom, were acquired by British American Tobacco (BAT) in 1925.[1]

History

The idea for the State Express brand came from the United States in 1893. Sir Albert Levy (1864–1937), a London tobacco merchant and businessman, was visiting the United States. While in Manhattan, Levy was a passenger on the Empire State Express train, which allegedly broke land speed records as locomotive No.999, the "Queen of Speed" sped its way from New York City to Buffalo, New York.

State Express was founded in London on 10 March 1896.[2] The numerals (a series of triple numbers from 111 to 999) forming the other part of the trademark were registered under UK Registration No. 290529 on 18 February 1907.[2]

Sport sponsorship

Rallying and Formula One

555 sponsors motorsports. 555 World Racing logos were seen on Hong Kong – Beijing Rally cars from 1985 to 1987 and Subaru World Rally Championship cars from 1993 to 2004.[6] It has been speculated that the Subaru 22B, a limited-edition version of the Subaru Impreza WRX STI, took its name from 555, as "22B" is its hexadecimal equivalent. [6] For rallies where tobacco advertising was forbidden, the 555 logos were replaced by three crescent moons.

Even after State Express 555 withdrew its sponsorship, Subaru continued to use the 555 blue and yellow colour scheme as its WRC livery until its withdrawal, but with the manufacturer's own logos in place of the 555 brand. The State Express 555 livery is now regarded as the brand's standard motorsport livery; Vermont SportsCar, which runs United States rally operations for Subaru, continues to use the State Express livery colours at events.[7]

When British American Racing debuted in Formula One in with the BAR 01, the team originally wanted to brand Ricardo Zonta's car in the blue and yellow livery of 555 World Racing, whilst branding Jacques Villeneuve's car with Lucky Strike colours. However, the move was blocked by the FIA, and they were forced to run two similar liveries. They opted to have the Lucky Strike brand on the left of the car and 555 World Racing on the right, with a zip going along the middle of the nose. It was highly unpopular, and so for the 2000 season, they chose to just display mostly Lucky Strike logos, with small 555 World Racing logos on the side and nose. Some years between 2000 and 2006 (after Honda had bought out BAR, and were under pressure to drop tobacco sponsorship under new EU legislation), they prominently displayed the 555 World Racing brand at the Chinese Grands Prix, where the 555 brand is better known. However, from 2007 until their withdrawal at the end of 2008, Honda adopted a livery with no sponsorship logos at all, but a livery depicted Earth to raise environmental awareness. In countries where tobacco sponsoring was banned, the 555 logos were again replaced by three crescent moons.

Other sponsorships

In 1979 and 1982, 555 sponsored Badminton.
In 1980, 555 sponsored 1980 Summer Olympics.
The 1984 Challenge Cup was named the State Express Challenge Cup due to sponsorship from State Express.
In 1992, 555 (with Bentoel Group and Rothmans Group) sponsored the 1992 World Rally Championship season.
In 1996 Star Trek: The Next Generation on Myanmar TV was sponsored by 555.

type	Cigarette
currentowner	British American Tobacco
country	United Kingdom
introduced	Westminster, London
markets	See Markets
previousowners	Ardath Tobacco Company
tagline	Smoothness Above All Else
footnotes	Carcinogenicity: IARC group 1

History

Sport sponsorship

Rallying and Formula One

Other sponsorships

References