The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company had a problem. How, they asked themselves, can we get these misanthropic twenty-somethings to smoke our cigarettes instead of the ones they already smoke? Then, a light bulb: Brooklyn. We’ll sell our cigarettes on the cred accrued by Williamsburg.
So they put the Williamsburg Bridge on the package, Read More
Williamsburg lifers are up in arms about R.J. Reynolds’ plan to roll out a new line of Camels that feature the “hipster” neighborhood on its packaging. The choice of locale, Camel promotional material claims, is supposed to associate the brand with “breaking free.” Camel explains the Brooklyn neighborhood thusly: “It’s about last call, a Read More
You’re just another rebellion-minded young kid with ambitions to be like one of those people you associate yourself with. That’s correct, you want to be a hipster. And where do these hipsters live? Well, you know they live in Williamsburg, in Brooklyn, where the PBR flows like water and irony is the lingua franca. But Read More
When Governor Paterson raised tobacco taxes, anti-smoking advocates were overjoyed. The taxes, they had hoped, would lead to a significant drop-off in sales — maybe even 10 percent.
They weren’t even close. The New York Post reports that since the cigarette levy was upped to the nation’s highest in July, sales have nosedived 27 Read More
Like all living and breathing Americans, cigarette smokers will someday die. Now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new policy that will require cigarette packaging to make this inevitability more clear, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.
After passing a law last year that required cigarette companies to slap more rigorous warnings on its Read More
For the moment, bargain-hunting smokers can still hike upstate to Indian reservations for cheap cartons of cigarettes — and David Paterson is less than pleased. In June, the Governor signed the far-reaching bill that would force retailers on reservations to buy cigarettes at fully taxed wholesale prices. The ordinance was set to go into effect Wednesday, Read More
After a Buffalo judge ruled Monday in favor of Gov. Paterson’s decision to tax cigarettes on Indian reservations, officials expected to wake up this morning having snuffed out all in-state options for smokers seeking a cheap pack.
But the Thruway may again be filled with cigarette-seeking New Yorkers! On Tuesday U.S. District Court Judge Richard Read More
