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Old Gold Cigarettes ad
1952

The Department of Health has said Hong Kong’s smoking rate dropped to a record low of 8.5 per cent, but it fell short of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended target.

“Hong Kong’s smoking rate has continued to decline from 23.3 per cent in the early 1980s to 8.5 per cent in 2025, hitting a record low,” the Department of Health said in a statement on Wednesday.

The smoking rate was 9.1 per cent in 2023.

Citing a Census and Statistics Department survey conducted from July to October last year, the department said around 540,000 Hong Kong residents had a daily habit of smoking conventional cigarettes.

“The decline of Hong Kong’s smoking rate to a record low is the result of years of concerted efforts by the public and various sectors of the community, making Hong Kong an international role model for successful tobacco control,” the head of the Department of Health’s Tobacco & Alcohol Control Office, Manny Lam, was quoted as saying in the statement.

However, Lam acknowledged the figure fell short of the city’s goal of lowering the smoking rate to 7.8 per cent – a figure recommended by the WHO.

He attributed the shortfall to Hong Kong’s already low baseline smoking rate. He said that although the smoking rate fell short, it still amounted to a 23.4 per cent decrease from the smoking rate of 11.1 per cent in 2010.

With Hong Kong’s smoking rate already low, “it was difficult to lower it by 30 per cent,” Lam said at a Wednesday press conference, referring to another WHO benchmark.

He also warned of the high costs of smoking, citing studies showing that Hong Kong suffered an economic loss of HK$8 billion annually due to smoking-related health conditions.

Quitting drive

The Department of Health also announced that as part of the “Quit in June” campaign, it would distribute free nicotine patches at community pharmacies, department clinics, smoking cessation clinics, and District Health Centres, as well as non-invasive “ear point” acupuncture patches at designated Chinese medicine clinics.

A new AI service, “Chat to Quit”, developed with the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) School of Nursing, is also available for personalised and interactive counselling, the department said.

Kelvin Wang, professor at HKU’s School of Nursing, said at the press conference that people could sign up and speak to the AI bot on WhatsApp, and those who had quit smoking after half a year would be invited to take carbon monoxide and cotinine tests.

Hong Kong banned the public possession of vapes and heated cigarettes on April 30.

As of May 23, authorities have issued 39 fixed penalty tickets under the new restriction.

saltycotton posted a photo:

Encore Cigarettes ad
1955

Truus, Bob & Jan too! posted a photo:

Vintage Dutch postcard. Photo Coret, The Hague. From a booklet of postcards on the stage play Boefje/ Little Rascal, adapted for the stage by Jaap van der Poll after the novel (1903) by M.J. Brusse. The little rascal Jan Govers was played by Annie van Ees, his parents M. and Mrs. Govers, by Piet Bron and Mrs. Schwab-Welman. The play premiered in 1923, by 1935 Van Ees had played the part 500 times.

In 1939 a film adaptation followed, directed by Douglas Sirk/ Detlef Sierck, shortly before he moved to Hollywood (he never saw the finished film). In the film, Van Ees again played the part of the rascal Jan Govers, while Bron played the father once more. Shooting took place at the The Hague based film studio complex Filmstad.

Marie Joseph (Rie) Brusse (Amsterdam, June 26, 1873 – Alkmaar, January 5, 1941) was a Dutch journalist and writer. His well-known book *Boefje* was adapted into a film in 1939. According to one of his sons, M.J. Brusse was known as the “prince of journalists.”

Brusse was an innovator in Dutch journalism. He was one of the first to describe situations and events from his own observational perspective. He was also one of the first to present the interviews and conversations he conducted in dialogue form. For his series of articles on Rotterdam sailors’ lodgings, he went undercover (1898). For decades, he wrote daily reports and serialized stories for the (then) Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant under the title “Onder de Menschen.” He wrote extensively about social injustices in the major cities and in rural areas. Many of his pieces were published in book form. A bestseller was his book *Het rosse leven en sterven van de Zandstraat* about Rotterdam’s red-light and sailors’ district around Zandstraat.

During the First World War, he reported extensively on the work of Dutch doctors and nurses in the Balkans, both in newspapers and in books. In 1915, he published *The Horrors of War in Serbia* about Dr. Arius van Tienhoven’s ambulance unit in Valjevo, and two years later, *A Dutch Hospital in a Bombed City* about Dr. Henri van Dijk’s work at the front in Monastir. In 2017, 100 years after its first publication, the First World War Study Center Foundation reissued that latter work.

In 1903, he published a serialized story titled Boefje in the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, also issued that year as novel. The play Boefje, adapted from Brusse's lovel and written by Jaap van der Poll, enjoyed great popularity and was performed hundreds of times with actress Annie van Ees in the title role, from 1923 onward. In 1939, Douglas Sirk directed a Dutch film adaptation starring the then 45-year-old Van Ees.

Brusse spent the last years of his life with his family in Groet (North Holland). He died in 1941 in a hospital in Alkmaar and is buried at the General Cemetery in Schoorl.

(Source: Dutch Wikipedia)

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Benson and Hedges Cigarettes ad
1958

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Du Maurier Cigarettes ad
1940s

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Canada Dry Ginger Ale ad
“The Saturday Evening Post” magazine
March 5, 1935

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Jane Irwell ad
1950s

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Nor-East Suit ad
1958

Eudaemonius posted a photo:

saltycotton posted a photo:

Kool Cigarettes ad
“Better Homes & Gardens” magazine
1959