W.D. & H.O. Wills was a British tobacco importer and manufacturer formed in Bristol, England. It was the first UK company to mass-produce cigarettes. The company was founded in 1786 and went by various names before 1830 when it became W.D. & H.O. Wills. It is also known for having pioneered the use of cigarette cards within their packaging.

The “Pirate” brand entered the Chinese market in 1891 and marked the earliest introduction of a foreign cigarette brand in China. After 1902 the brand was distributed in China by the quasi monopoly of the British American Tobacco Company.

Initially however the brand faced challenges: Chinese consumers could not read the English word pirate and instead called the brand “old knife” referring to the sword the pirate held in his hand. Also after the Xinhai Revolution the anti-colonialist sentiment among Chinese towards Western iconography changed and pirates were not seen – like in the West of that time – as romanticized heroes, but rightly so as criminals and ransacking foreign oppressors. Subsequently the British American Tobacco Company started to fade out the use of the English brand term and emphasized the Chinese “LaoDao Pai” or “Old Knife Brand” (老刀牌) in their advertising. Additionally the key visual was altered with the previously shown cannon replaced with a metal box and the face and sword of the pirate changed. The brand story was revised to the metaphor of “A businessman holding an ancient old knife came to China by ship to promote the world's best cigarette - Old Knife". After heavy marketing investments, the revised "Old Knife" cigarette label was finally accepted by Chinese consumers and established itself as one of the most recognized brands in the country.