"Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet" is one of the most famous British advertising campaigns for a tobacco product. It was a long-running campaign for Hamlet Cigars, lasting on television until all tobacco advertising on television was banned in the UK in 1991.[1] They returned in cinemas in 1996, continuing there until 1999.[2]
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Commercials used an excerpt from a jazzy rendition of Bach's Air on the G String, played by the then young Jacques Loussier, which is still frequently associated with the brand.[3]
The advertisements featured in television, radio and cinema commercials, various print media, and on billboards. The slogan and the entire campaign was created by the Collett Dickenson Pearce agency in 1966. The premise is that a man finds himself in an awkward or embarrassing situation and lights a Hamlet cigar. Lighting and smoking this cigar makes him smile and forget his woes. The campaign branched out from traditional advertising, even publishing a book of cartoons based on the idea.
These adverts were often mocked, most notably on The Kenny Everett Television Show.
Numerous celebrities appeared in the adverts, including: