Pipe Promotion -

kashmir · Mar 6, 2013

I was just thinking - a wild haired thought really - but if one wanted to REALLY promote pipes, why not appeal to the hundreds of millions who are cigarette smokers? If pipes could be portrayed as a relatively safe alternative to cigarettes -and God knows how many pipemen were weaned off the cancer sticks by embracing the pipe - then HUGE markets would spontaneously open up. The very next day! There are hundreds of millions of cigarette smokers, many millions of which will suffer from lung cancer, who could be saved. And I'm speaking as an ex-cigarette smoker, who still enjoys the occasional Prince Albert roll up with cold black coffee.
Seriously. If we could get the Surgeon General to declare that yes, pipes are a relatively safer way to enjoy tobacco (and I've known Doctors who smoke a pipe), why then countless lives would saved. Even w/ out the AMA on board, the idea could be promoted. And the retail pipe markets would turn into Walmarts. Overnight!
This is not as crazy as it sounds. Ever hear of a cigarette smoker praising the quality of leaf? No, I didn't think so. The initial wave of advertising could be directed at China, where untold millions will die this year from cigarette related illness. In twenty years time, pipe smokers will be thanked as literal saviors of mankind. What say you? Pie in the sky? I think not.
Bumper sticker: Save a life - smoke a pipe.

hfearly · Mar 6, 2013

God forbid! I like how the pipe smoking community is small and friendly gathering of individualists. No need to get a billion people competing on my bids on that precious Comoy estate! ...

metalheadycigarguy · Mar 6, 2013

Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your stance, it won't happen. Most cigarette smokers like that quick nicotine fix and that's all that matters. They don't care about flavor of the tobacco or the relaxation that a pipe brings. Just a quick fix and they're good.

jgriff · Mar 6, 2013

In the current political climate, any form of smoking doesn't seem to be tolerated much less endorsed. I am firmly convinced that most of the anti-tobacco vigor is about being bothered by "smelly" smoke than any genuine concern about other people's health.
On top of that, cigarette smoker's thrive on a quick fix. Everything about pipes is anachronistic to our current culture and take too much time for the mainstream. I think the growth of pipe smoking is probably going to be linked more to it as a counterpoint to the over-stimulation of society.

yadan · Mar 6, 2013

"Seriously. If we could get the Surgeon General to declare that yes, pipes are a relatively safer way to enjoy tobacco (and I've known Doctors who smoke a pipe), why then countless lives would saved. Even w/ out the AMA on board, the idea could be promoted. And the retail pipe markets would turn into Walmarts. Overnight!
Never happen, my friend; it's too politically incorrect. The fight to add to red wine bottles labels such as "Research has shown that drinking red wine in moderation can be beneficial to coronary health" is a case in point which has gotten nowhere.

admin · Mar 6, 2013

Here's my endeavor from October 2010 -
How to Quit Cigarettes - Smoke a Pipe!

cynyr · Mar 6, 2013

I think the growth of pipe smoking is probably going to be linked more to it as a counterpoint to the over-stimulation of society.

Exceptionally good point! Needs to be printed on every tin!

kashmir · Mar 6, 2013

Thanks for chiming in gents. Kevin that's a great read. But I was figuring here we are on these forums scratching our heads on how to expand our hobby / lifestyle. Meanwhile outside the door are some nine hundred million cigarette smokers hacking their lungs out, wondering what to do. Love tabac but don't wanna die for it. Seriously, if I was in the business I'd figure out pretty right quick that its not rocket science. Nine hundred million cigarette smokers represent a ready market halfway tilted in our favor. All they need is just a little push to do the "right thing". And this is where the right advertising steps up to the plate and cleans house. Literally. To say there's billions to be made in converting cigarette smokers into pipe smokers is the understatement of the year! Plus, it would freak the daylights out of the Antis, because here we are solving their problem.

taerin · Mar 6, 2013

Good one Kevin, it made me want to learn to smoke a pipe!
The FDA has a track record of attempting to ban everything that is deemed a "safe" form of smoking, when the electronic cigarettes hit the shelves, the FDA stepped in, declared them illegal in this country and then proceeded to confiscate all shipments found containing these devices as they came into our country. The FDA does not want smoking to be legal or safe, they want it as harmful as possible or nothing, it is just the way it is. It is bad enough that pipe tobacco comes in more than one flavor (that is my biggest concern). If we get a movement going it will get the FDA's attention and we could loose our pipes alltogether, a lot quicker than had we not. I am thinking of the old addage right now "don't poke a sleeping bear."

numbersix · Mar 6, 2013

In theory it would be great, but I think there are bigger things at play (the anti-smoking movement, like the green movement, has gone from having good intentions and turned into a profit-making machine). If over the next 20 years a good percentage of cigarette smokers switched to pipes, then they'd go after pipe smoking with the same fervor.
@kashmir

If we could get the Surgeon General to declare that yes, pipes are a relatively safer way to enjoy tobacco

I think it's a safe bet that this will never happen.
@jgriff

In the current political climate, any form of smoking doesn't seem to be tolerated much less endorsed.

@yadan

Never happen, my friend; it's too politically incorrect.

+2
@Eric

The FDA does not want smoking to be legal or safe, they want it as harmful as possible or nothing

+1

numbersix · Mar 6, 2013

I was figuring here we are on these forums scratching our heads on how to expand our hobby / lifestyle

Given the current political climate (not just now, but over the past 30 years) I honestly don't want our hobby to expand all that much. IMO, all that would do is make us a bigger target of the government.

kashmir · Mar 6, 2013

OK. I see that I may not have thought the idea thru to completion. Par for the course here. And perhaps you're right. I don't relish the idea of competing with a billion Chinese on eBay for my next Comoy. LOL. Forgot to adhere to that old maxim: Don't shoot yer mouth off before yer brain is loaded.

mlyvers · Mar 6, 2013

let em smoke their cigs. we make products where i work for the chinese. it is material that produces o2. china is our biggest customer for this product. they are heavy smokers of the coffen nails. we need their bussiness where i work, in order to stay in bussiness.

mso489 · Mar 6, 2013

The second-hand smoke health issue would prevent this approach. Also, it would take fifty years to

develop the science to confirm or dismiss the relative safety of pipes, then another twenty to establish

that in policy. Pipe smoking will survive, but not as a public health policy, it would seem. The up-side

is that it keeps pipe smokers a small convivial community, outliers but in a good way. (At this point,

no one would fund the pipe smoking health research, either.)

cigrmaster · Mar 6, 2013

Kas, it is a nice dream and I can totally see the benefits being an ex cig smoker, but I don't want 200 million people chasing my flakes. Screw em. lol

kashmir · Mar 6, 2013

Agreed -

john218 · Mar 6, 2013

I think you could learn all you need to about smoking a cigarette in 5 minutes. Pipe smoking has a long learning curve that requires patience, commitment and dedication. I don't think the vast majority of cigarette smokers want to make that commitment.
We had a few posts here recently, where someone tried the pipe a few times and gave it up. I don't think the pipe is for everyone.
The quantity of tobacco suitable for pipe tobacco and the amount of briar available for pipes would never be able to handle a massive influx of new pipe smokers.
Let's hope for a steady, manageable growth, most of which seems to me to be coming from former cigar smokers.

mso489 · Mar 7, 2013

I wonder what the data is on actual number of pipe smokers today versus in the past. Probably there

was a greater percent of the population smoking pipes in the old days, but because there were many

fewer people, it may have been fewer than today. I would think the pipe tobacco industry has run these

numbers, but often companies don't want to share this kind of data with others, mainly competitors and

public health folks who might use it against them. If I had to guess, I would say that the peak of pipe

smoking was during World War II and just after, with a rising population and wide support of smoking

habits in general. It is possible that pipe smoking is at an all-time high ... or maybe as high as it's been

since the sixties. What would you guess for numbers -- millions, tens of millions?

fitzy · Mar 7, 2013

I'm with Harris. Just think of how hard it is to get certain tobacco's right now and then multiply that by millions of new pipe smokers. lol

chispa · Mar 7, 2013

"Ain't nobody got time for that"

In today's fast paced lifestyle I think the time it takes to learn and practice pipe smoking is not available to most cigarette smokers.

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