Cigarette brand stereotypes?
American Spirit cigarettes give you organic lung cancer This had me doubled-over in a laughing/coughing fit. Here are some stereotypes: • Anything menthol: Black people. • Anything clove: People either aspiring to look cool (goths, punks, indie kids, black-wearing college twits) or not accustomed to inhaling (newbs) • Capris/Virginia Slims: Women wearing 1980s shoulder pads and high heels, with too much perfume and makeup. • Benson & Hedges: Rockabilly fans and very old people (interesting tidbit: B&H were the first to come up with 100’s–the really long cigarettes) • American Spirits: Compassionate liberals • Bidis: Chomsky liberals • Lucky Strikes: Car mechanics, war vets • Parliaments: People convinced they’re trying to quit, usually aspiring upper-middle class twits • Marlboro/Camel: Your textbook, generic cigarette, for textbook, generic smokers.
Black people prefer menthols. Older white FedGov employees also smoke menthols. Former Sovs and East Bloc people smoke Marlboro “Reds”, because they were, being an American import, a status symbol during the Communist-era. To a lesser degree, this will be true of upwardly mobile third-worlders. Younger French people smoke Marlboro Lights; their embassy employees purchase them at $10 a carton from the embassy commissary, and the cigs are imports which taste slightly more mild than American Marlboro Lights. Older ones smoke French cigs, again more mild than American smokes. Indonesians smoke delightfully mild cloves, of several locally produced brands (also available, unsurprisingly, through their embassy). Gays as a community do not seem, to my recollection, to have clear brand preferences. Everybody will smoke “Reds” if they have to.
I think the “black people smoke menthols” is almost a self-perpetuating stereotype. Perhaps, but while I’ve known white menthol smokers, every black smoker I’ve ever known smoked menthols. Latins go about 50/50 in my experience. Merits are generally smoked by ex-drunks and ex-dopers for some reason. Chesterfields are generally only smoked by those over 70. Nows and Vantages are for former 1970’s swinger types. Bull Durham, GPC’s and the like are smoked by the dirt poor, and people overextended before payday. This information is gleaned from 20 years of smoking and a stretch working behind the counter at a convenience store/newsstand.
