Vantage is a brand of American cigarettes manufactured by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company

The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company , based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and founded by R. J. Reynolds in 1875, is the second-largest tobacco company in the U.S. . RJR is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc...

. It received its biggest advertising push in the 1970s and '80s but is now categorized as a 'non-support' brand; though R.J. Reynolds will not provide marketing support for Vantage, the company will maintain the brand's distribution where there is consumer demand.

Vantage is notable for its innovative filter design. Rather than featuring a solid filter like most cigarette brands, Vantage's filter features a conical hole in its center. While seemingly as mysterious as Parliament

Parliament (cigarette)

Parliament is a brand of cigarettes marketed by the company Philip Morris. The brand was introduced in 1931 and is distinctive for its recessed paper filters. In the 1940s and '50s, the brand was marketed for its unique filters, with advertisements reading, "Only the flavor touches your lips", and...

's recessed filter, Vantage advertising from 1977 states that the reasoning behind the design is to give "smokers the flavor of a full-flavor cigarette without anywhere near the 'tar' or nicotine". Similarly, Vantage's packaging still features the slogan "Rich Taste, Low Tar" and promises 9 mg of tar and 0.8 mg of nicotine.

Vantage's current-day profile is rather low, but the brand pops up every so often. In the film "Junebug

Junebug (film)

Junebug is a 2005 American comedy-drama film directed by Phil Morrison. It was released on August 3, 2005 and stars Amy Adams, Alessandro Nivola, Embeth Davidtz, and Benjamin McKenzie...

", it is the brand smoked by Peg Johnsten, the mother-in-law of Amy Adams

Amy Adams

Amy Lou Adams is an American actress and singer. Adams began her performing career on stage in dinner theaters before making her screen debut in the 1999 black comedy film Drop Dead Gorgeous...

' character, Ashley. It is featured as the heroine's cigarette of choice in Lorrie Moore

Lorrie Moore

Lorrie Moore is an American fiction writer known mainly for her humorous and poignant short stories.-Biography:...

's short story "Willing" in her collection Birds of America

Birds of America (stories)

Birds of America is a collection of short stories by American writer Lorrie Moore. The stories in this collection originally appeared in The New Yorker, Elle, The New York Times, and The Paris Review. The story "People Like That Are the Only People Here" won an O. Henry Award in 1998...

and is seen being stubbed out by a minor character in Donna Tartt

Donna Tartt

Donna Tartt is an American writer and author of the novels The Secret History and The Little Friend . She won the WH Smith Literary Award for The Little Friend in 2003.-Early life:...

's bestselling The Secret History

The Secret History

The Secret History, the first novel by Mississippi-born writer Donna Tartt, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1992. A 75,000 print order was made for the first edition , and the book became a bestseller.Set in New England, The Secret History tells the story of a closely knit group of six classics...

. Similarly, the final punch line of the film Reversal of Fortune

Reversal of Fortune

Reversal of Fortune is a 1990 film adapted from the 1985 book Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bülow Case, written by law professor Alan Dershowitz...

comes as Jeremy Irons

Jeremy Irons

Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...

's Klaus von Bulow purchases "two packs Vantage" at a drug store. Bette Davis

Bette Davis

Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...

, who was well known for her smoking habit, changed her preferred cigarette from Lucky Strike

Lucky Strike

Lucky Strike is a brand of cigarette owned by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top selling cigarette in the United States during the 1930s.- History :...

to Vantage in the later years of her life.