Date:  Wed, 12 Apr 1995 08:58:24 EDT

From:  Larry Horn <LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU>

Subject: Death cigarets



Daniel Goodman just wrote:



>On Wed, 5 Apr 1995, Larry Horn wrote:



>>I was wondering about Death brand cigs too; perhaps the tobacco companies are

>>taking a new tack on pre-empting false advertising lawsuits.



>Death cigarets do exist, and are packaged appropriately. I don't know

>what company makes them -- not one of the large tobacco companies, I

>don't think.



By an odd coincidence, I happened to have just come upon this passage in a

(very funny) novel I'm reading, "Thank You For Smoking", by Christopher Buckley

--the Nick referred to is the protagonist, a flack for the "Academy of Tobacco

Studies".



  Nick knew all about Death cigarettes. Everyone at the Academy kept a

  pack, with its distinctive skull and bones logo, despite the fact that

  the industry's official attitude toward Deaths was not exactly collegial.

  It was the perfect cigarette for the cynical age. It said--shouted--OUR

  PRODUCT WILL KILL YOU! What product advertised itself more honestly

  than that? The surgeon general's warning on the side was positively

  ludicrous. And they were FLYING off the shelves, though their appeal

  tended to concentrate on young urbans for whom coughing up blood was

  still a sign of manhood.



 --Larry