Well, in the case of Café Creme or Hamlet, they'll be festooned with anti-smoker porn, of course. But for the higher end, it's an interesting question which has been answered in an e-mail by a fellow jewel robber from the asylum formerly known as Down Under.
Here is a pic of some seriously expensive cigars once the absurd Labor government got hold of them (Click to enlarge).
You may note that the little band around them has been replaced by a government-mandated one in small, plain font. Gone is, for example, the San Cristobal Mercaderes branding ...
Y'see, plain packaging is all to do with the children. If they were to notice a one inch piece of gold in a venue they're not allowed to enter, they would be immediately compelled to shell out the equivalent of £35 to buy one.
Stop laughing ... politicians actually believe this crap!
14 comments:
Here in Canada, A licensed Tobacconist store is off limits to anyone under age 19. So plain packaging is not an issue here.
Now any convenience store that carries tobacco products must cover the shelves so the cigarette packs can not be seen.
Certain tobacconist shops that are situated in Malls where people passing can look in the store window must mirror or foil their windows so children can not see inside the store.
Now the stupidest setup I have seen so far is a chain of smoke shops called 'Holy Smokes', they have foiled the windows to their walk-in Humidor. They do not allow even legal age patrons to enter the humidor to select the cigars they wish to purchase. You have to flip thru a book/catalog outside, pick the brand and size you want and then the store clerk will go into the humidor and get the ones you request. No chance to look at all the cigars in the box and pick the ones you like, you have to take what the clerk brings out.
Very interesting, thanks.
It does suggest that these daft laws could also present some fine opportunities for fraudulent sales of expensive cigars. At those kind of prices, it's a big temptation that the Aussie and Canadian governments have gently encouraged. ;)
Why 19 I wonder. I wonder a lot these days but selling age restricted products in age restricted shops or parts thereof is not an entirely daft idea. Not being able to hand pick an expensive cigar on the other hand is extremely stupid and annoying.
Dick - It occurred to me recently that I have bought a lot of Star Wars figures and vehicles when I was a kid. I worked out that if I had left them all in the original packaging and sold them now, I probably wouldn't need a mortgage.
I've started a new collection. Packs of fags with UK health warnings on them. I'm going to buy a pack or two each weekend and put them in a nice display cabinet that I will build.
Who knows, ten or twenty years down the line, they may be worth something.
I'll be putting each one on the blog, starting this weekend.
Looking forward to it already :)
God, they really are bloody philistines, aren't they? They wouldn't recognise aestheticism if it came up and barked in their faces. All they can think of is uglification in pursuit of their ideology. I've made this comparison before, but they follow the same misguided justifications as did the Taliban when they blew up the giant Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Pure ideological vandalism. The apex of ignorance and brutishness.
Dear Mr Puddlecote
Would you like a Vcitory Gin to go with that Victory Cigar?
DP
Mr E Blair was remarkably prescient, was he not?
Ugly and destruction is what they do. What makes it particularly distasteful is that their anti-social agenda is solely designed to fill their own pockets.
It has never been about health.
And, of course, by removing the brand, you remove the brand guarantee.
How does a customer know that these cigars marked simply “Cuba” actually are San Cristobal Mercaderes? Unless he's a serious (and seriously good) connoisseur, he doesn't have a clue. Enter the counterfeiters. Much easier to fake a plain brown band than an elaborate gilt one...
Precisely.
Juan.
It just isn't Canada's turn yet. At the moment, the job of Canadian Zealots is to re-run the McTear V Imperial Tobacco case, which was held in Scotland and which Tobacco Control lost ignominiously. In Ireland, it is the ban on smoking in cars with children present. In Scotland, it is minimum pricing of alcohol. In England, it is plain packaging. Australia already have plain packaging, but they are still having to defend it against accusations of breaking trade agreements.
I've been ill all weekend so I'm leaving it until next weekend. That man flu is a bloody killer :-)
That is all fine but in actual how many smokers/tobacco eaters actually looks for the brand? They are addicted to the product mainly, not sure how this plain packaging going to create an effect in decreasing the number of smokers.
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