414. FIGHTER CIGARETTES of La Perla Cigar & Cigarette Factory, Inc. 1950s Ads

Gen.DOUGLAS MACARTHUR, Freedom Fighter,  in a 1957 FIGHTER Ad,

 La Perla Cigar and Cigarette Factory Inc., was a  domestic corporation engaged in the manufacture of cigars and cigarettes, based in Parañaque, Rizal. It was founded by Don Cheng Tsai in 1946, who started producing cigarettes in a rented building. It was later headed by son, Johnny Cheng Ching Chuan.

FIGHTER Label. Photo: Pinoy Kollektor
Edward Delos Santos

In its time, it was the largest manufacturer of top quality cigarette brands in the country, made from imported tobacco  in the mid 1950s. It had a separate plant that manufactured Golden Coin Cigarettes, and early bestseller, in Pasay City. The Sport brand was made in the Parañaque plant, which also housed not only the factories and their modern machines, but also its giant warehouse, and  executive offices.

Courtesy of Springfield College, Archives and Special Collections.
THE WORLD-FAMOUS HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS AT
LA PERLA FACTORY, PARANAQUE, 1952.

One other brand that was well-advertised nationally in the 1950s was FIGHTER Cigarettes. It was made from imported tobacco and became one of its leading brands, leading the company to claim that FIGHTER was “the people’s favorite”.

NO DUST, NO DIRT...FIGHTER PRINT AD, 1959

In the post-war years, the company had the audacity to use the image of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the pipe-smoking liberator of the Philippines, in its ads. FIGHTER Cigarettes disappeared from the market in the 1960s, when U.S. brands of cigarettes found favor as “colonial mentality” shifted Filipino’s cigarette taste for Western brands.