THEY have provided some of the most memorable images in advertising history, but are about to be stubbed out for good.

From midnight tonight tobacco ads on billboards and in newspapers and magazines will disappear as new Government legislation is introduced.

The Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill, which recently became law, bans such ads in a move that the Government claims will save 3,000 lives every year.

Images that have become ingrained on the public consciousness include the all-American Marlboro Man advertising the Philip Morris Marlboro brand, and the purple silk of the Silk Cut brand.

For many years famous Hollywood stars such as James Dean and John Wayne were the public faces of cigarette brands until the health risks associated with smoking became clear.

Ironically, Hollywood's smoker supreme, Humphrey Bogart, died of throat cancer.

Bogie - who rarely appeared in a movie without a cigarette - defended his tobacco habit until the end, providing withering put-downs of the anti-smoking brigade and often waxing lyrical about the psychoanalytical effects of puffing on a tab.

When governments moved to stop the more outrageous cigarette ads - such as the one showing a youthful Ronald Reagan giving the gift of smoking by sending packets of cigarettes to his pals at Christmas - tobacco companies fell back on clever ads that delivered a more subtle message.

Often the ads used a sense of humour to promote their brand - the Hamlet cigar ads with their simple ironies and slogan "Happiness is . . ." being among the most famous.

Tobacco advertising on television has been subject to a ban for several years, although some have continued to be shown at the cinema, which are also due to disappear.

Anti-smoking groups have welcomed the advertising ban.

Darcy Brown, smoking cessation officer for the Darlington Primary Care Trust, said: "This is a change that we have been campaigning for a long time.

"Advertising in all of its forms is of prime importance to the tobacco companies, and is about reaching the very young and easily influenced.

"Advertisers promote smoking as a glamorous, cool, attractive pastime, but the product causes financial loss, misery and ultimately an early death."

It is thought that about half a billion pounds is spent by cigarette manufacturers on advertising in the UK each year.

British American Tobacco (BAT), which employs about 600 people at its Rothmans factory, in Darlington, played down the effect that the advertising ban would have on its business.

It manufactures brands such as Rothmans Royals, Dunhill and Lucky Strike, although much of its product is exported abroad.

A BAT spokeswoman said: "We don't expect to be hugely affected by this ban.

"People smoke for a variety of reasons with peer pressure often the greatest factor, not advertising."

Gill Silverman, of the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association, said: "The ban on tobacco advertising has been coming for a long time and is not a surprise to the UK tobacco companies.

"On the other hand we still believe that advertising only affects brand share and not the overall size of the market.

"We believe that a ban will not achieve the aim of reducing consumption that the Government thinks it will.

"In fact there will be very little change in the market."

Dr Bill Kirkup, regional director of public health for the North-East, said: "I'm an enthusiastic supporter of this ban because it will undoubtedly prevent the premature deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of people living in the North- East.

"More than 6,000 people in the region die from smoking-related diseases every year.

"That's one out of every five deaths - and approximately 60,000 lives lost in the past ten years.

"Anything which helps us reduce this grim toll of human misery can only be a good thing, and this is a significant milestone on the road to better health."

About 28 per cent of the North-East population aged 16 or over smoke and it is estimated that tobacco companies bought 2,808 poster sites in the region to advertise their products last year.