What Happened to Benson & Hedges? The Gold Pack That Owned Australian Cricket

Welcome to Big Truck Time! 🚛 For two decades you could not watch Australian cricket without seeing it. The gold pack. The B&H logo on the stumps. The Benson and Hedges World Series Cup. The Benson and Hedges World Championship of Cricket. A British cigarette brand became so embedded in Australian sport that an entire generation grew up thinking B&H was just cricket's natural sponsor. Then in 1996 one law changed everything overnight. It started in a tobacconist shop on Old Bond Street in London in 1873. Richard Benson and William Hedges built their brand on refinement — hand-rolled tobacco, careful blending, the 100mm cigarette that made other brands look stubby. Within five years they had a Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria. The gold pack was born. And the gold pack travelled. In the Australia of the 1960s and 70s Benson and Hedges arrived not as just another cigarette on the shelf but as a symbol of aspiration. The gold stood out in a sea of plain browns and reds. Rothmans International — who already owned Winfield — understood exactly what they had. Winfield for the working class. B&H for those who wanted to project success. Two brands, one company, both ends of the Australian market covered. Then came cricket. In 1973 the Australian Cricket Board signed a naming rights deal that would reshape the summer game. From the 1979-80 season the annual one-day tri-series became the Benson and Hedges World Series Cup — running uninterrupted until the 1995-96 season. The gold logo on the stumps. The B&H crest on every official program and trophy. The name spoken by Richie Benaud at every ground in Australia. 1985 — the World Championship of Cricket, held to celebrate Victoria's 150th anniversary, became the Benson and Hedges World Championship of Cricket — Australia winning it on home soil in one of the most celebrated moments in the sport's history. 1992 — the Cricket World Cup itself became the Benson and Hedges World Cup. B&H also put its gold on the racing circuits — sponsoring Tony Longhurst's Australian Touring Car Championship team through the 1980s and early 1990s. The gold livery at Bathurst as recognisable as the stumps branding at the SCG. Television advertising for cigarettes was banned in Australia in 1976. Print banned in 1989. Outdoor advertising gone state by state through the early 1990s. Each time a channel closed B&H poured more into sport — turning cricket grounds and racing circuits into the last legal advertising spaces in the country. Health advocates saw exactly what was happening. Parliament saw it too. 1996 — the federal government amended the Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act and closed the last loophole. There was no gradual phase-out. No special dispensation for tradition or nostalgia. The law took effect immediately. The next season the stumps were bare. The World Series Cup had a new name. The gold was gone from every scoreboard in Australia. In England the B&H Cup continued until 2002 — 31 seasons, one of cricket's longest ever sponsorships — before the UK ban ended it there too. December 2012 — Australia became the first country in the world to introduce plain packaging. The iconic gold pack reduced to an olive-brown box with graphic health warnings. The brand still exists. British American Tobacco Australia still sells Benson and Hedges behind convenience store counters. But the packaging is unrecognisable. The gold is gone. The stumps are clean. The scoreboard shows bank and telecommunications sponsors. A generation raised on the gold logo watched it disappear almost overnight. The ban was right. But the era it ended was unforgettable. If you love trucks, roadtrains, roaring engines, and everything that keeps the highways alive — you’re in the right place. From powerful machines hauling massive loads to the raw beauty of diesel engines at work, this channel is all about the heart and soul of trucking. 👉 Hit that Subscribe button so you never miss the latest videos from the world of big rigs and road power! 📨 For business inquiries or collaborations, feel free to contact me at: [email protected] #trucks #trucking #truckdrivers #truckers #roadtrains #roadtrainsaustralia #australia #outback