Free standing cardboard shop-counter advertisement for Meadow Gold `medium' Cigarettes, with coloured illustration, by W.T. Davies & Sons (a branch of the Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britain & Ireland), Chester, England, 1940-1965

Brightly coloured advertisements like these for products such as Meadow Gold cigarettes were placed on shop counters to attract the attention of customers.

Tobacco contains nicotine, a highly addictive substance and one of a number of dangerous chemicals that are inhaled when smoking. The long term health problems associated with the habit only began to be realised in the 1950s.

The cigarettes were made by W T Davies, which became part of the Imperial Tobacco Company of Great Britain and Ireland in 1902. The Imperial Tobacco Company was formed to protect British companies from American takeovers.