First, let me warn you that clicking on some of the links in this post will take you to view things that are definitely NSFW (not safe for work).

This part of the post is PG-rated, unless like many in our over-politically-correct time, you think that cigars and smoking are R or X-rated subjects by themselves. The European television advertisements shown on the next page, however, would never get on the air in the U.S.A. even if they weren’t advertising tobacco products.

More’s the pity.

They are quite funny and very well done. They are advertisements for Independence Cigars, and the link to their website is also safe. Independence cigars are short-fillers, and I’m not sure if they have a North American distributor. The company is owned by Arnold André, one of the leading German manufacturers of cigars and cigarillos that was founded in 1817, and they seem to have learned quite a bit about marketing in that time.

The NSFW ads are below the fold.

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From Rich Perelman at CigarCyclopedia:

A looming time bomb is ticking, which if it explodes in November, may close many of the retail tobacco stores in the state of California.

It goes by the name of “The Tobacco Tax Act of 2006.”

The latest initiative to come from the anti-tobacco lobby, this bill seeks primarily to raise the tax on cigarettes by 13 cents apiece or $2.60 per pack. The state already has an 87 cents per pack tax and the resulting $3.47 per pack rate would be the highest in the nation.

The measure creates a “Tobacco Tax of 2006 Trust Fund” in the state treasury, which in turn will fund a variety of health programs such as research and a variety of anti-tobacco advertising and promotional ventures for state and local government use.

But the insidious nature of this proposition is that California is the only state which links its tax on cigarettes to what are known as “other tobacco products” (“OTP”). These include cigars, pipe tobacco, smokeless, little cigars and roll-your-own cigarettes. It is this aspect of the proposition which will destroy California’s smokeshops. While the tax rate is not specified in the proposition, the state’s Board of Equalization would be required to impose a tax rate “equivalent” to the rate on cigarettes.

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Cigar Jack points out a Forbes article that explores how teenagers are turning to cigar smoking in record numbers, and decries the consequent health risks.

Putting aside the issue of how dangerous to your health proper cigar smoking is, since I’ve covered that recently in another article, we ought to turn to the issue of whether what today’s teens are smoking are really cigars. As Jack puts it:

“A new name needs to be thought up for those cigars canine fecal matter sticks sold at gas stations. I’ve smoked ACID and CAO Flavors and I’ve yet to come across grape flavored premium cigars. Did I just say premium flavored cigars. heh… This was another sign they were discussing that cheap gas station crap.”

You know, despite those harsh words, perhaps there is something to this flavored cigar thing that I’ve overlooked. In the interest of reaching out to a new generation of cigar aficionados, perhaps I ought to expand the review section here at Cigar Envy to include the cigars that this younger generation knows and loves. Why just focus on those crusty old standbys like Partagas, Romeo y Julieta, Punch, Davidoff, Arturo Fuente and the like? You have to move with the times, change or be left behind.

So don’t be surprised if you see a full-blown review here soon of a White Owl Wild Apple or a Philly Blunt Mango.

(…blogger…journalist…media whore…decisions, decisions.)

In the meantime, while I struggle with career issues, check out Cigar Jack’s comments.