"Sweet Afton" Banks Cigarettes Coupons

"These particular coupons have been in my Grandfather's house for decades. There are approximately 100 coupons. During the early Twentieth Century shops throughout Ireland introduced printed cigarette coupons for two reasons; firstly, to encourage the public to shop at their store in favour of another, and more importantly to further brand recognition of the "Sweet Afton" Banks Cigarettes label. Coupons gave the appearance that "Sweet Afton" Banks was giving something of tangible value back to the consumer. This particular cigarette brand (of P. J. Carrolls & Co. Ltd., Dundalk) ran a number of various competitions distributing gifts and prizes through the use of coupons. "Sweet Afton" cigarette coupon catalogues were distributed in Ireland during the 1930's in order to illustrate what products and objects were available to their consumers (depending on the quantity of coupons the individual had). Obviously I do not know a huge amount of (or to what extent) what objects could be exchanged for these small vouchers and I hope that if they are of interest to you and this campaign. I feel that these coupons are of importance to Irish History and that there is, now ample opportunity to explore the unexplored and discuss these objects in terms of design history, design theory, visual culture and material culture. In the 1999 RTÉ programme "From Giant at My Shoulder", William Trevor, the Irish novelist, playwright and short story writer, discussed Charles Dickens (the writer who had the most important influence on his life). In this contribution, Trevor illustrates the role coupons such as those aforementioned, played in obtaining culturally influential objects (such as Dickens' writings) for the Irish household. He observes "a single bookshelf accompanied my peripatetic childhood from Mitchelstown to Youghal to Skibbereen to Tipperary to Enniscorthy to Port Laoise (still Maryborough in those days). Its shelves, half-empty at first, filled as the years went on with job lots picked up at country auctions. And then my father traded in his Sweet Afton cigarette coupons for the entire output of Charles Dickens". "