Axton-Fisher Tobacco Company

{{Short description|Former Kentucky-based manufacturer of cigarettes}}

Axton-Fisher Tobacco Company, founded in 1903, was a Louisville, Kentucky-based manufacturer of cigarettes that played a key role in popularizing menthol cigarettes, with its Spud brand. It was acquired by Philip Morris Companies Inc. in 1944.

File:1932 Spud cigarettes ad.jpg (February, 1932)]]

Menthol cigarettes were first developed by Lloyd "Spud" Hughes of Mingo Junction, Ohio, in 1924,{{cite web|url=https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/US1555580.png|title=Process of Treating Cigarette Tobacco|publisher=United States Patent Office}} though the idea did not become popular until the Axton-Fisher Tobacco Co. acquired the patent in 1927, marketing them nationwide as "Spud Menthol Cooled Cigarettes". Spud brand menthol cigarettes went on to become the fifth most popular brand in the US by 1932,{{cite news|last=McNichols|first=Tom|title=Mint that Kills: The Curious Life of Menthol Cigarettes|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/03/mint-that-kills-the-curious-life-of-menthol-cigarettes/73016/|access-date=18 July 2011|newspaper=The Atlantic|date=25 March 2011}} and it remained the only menthol cigarette on the market until the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company created the Kool brand in 1933.