No More Artistic Cigar Labels (Canada)

[olkofri]

New rules for cigar packaging and labeling in the Great White North, which is becoming ever less glorious and free.
The statement from the Canada Cancer Suxiety official couldn't be more infuriating: "if they have to close so be it".
I would like to encourage fellow Canadians to sign the petition against plain packaging: Petition e1858 (Plain Packaging for Cigars).

 

[canucklehead]

I signed. I like the artistic labels and cool box designs more than the cigars, personally.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Too many nonsmokers for that to not come to pass. Look at pipe tobacco tins. Let them do their worst, the first time I stepped into a walk in humidor it wasn't the smell of the labels that made me want to smoke them. :wink:

 

[woodsroad]

I used to love Canada.

 

[davet]

I used to love Canada.

Me too.... :crying:

 

[Chasing Embers]

Sign of the times sadly.

 

[mikethompson]

Signed, and will be watching this one.

 

[bassbug]

I used to love Canada.

I still do.
All things considered, I'd rather live here than anywhere else on earth.

 

[mikethompson]

Well said bassbug

 

[bluto]

Wasn’t there a rule , you can’t label pipe tobacco as food , cake , pudding , plums and so on

 

[stacen]

I am an Ex pat Canadian. I weep for that sorry, once great, country. Nothing makes me happier than the reality that my life as unfolded in such a way as to get me out of that place. Often tone is lost in quick text messages, to be clear, my tone here is sad, and at the same time thankful that I was able to find a life somewhere else. The country is on a slow, soul destroying, inevitable march into a government controlled socialist nightmare. The worst part is that the population begs for it. I genuinely can't understand why a people would want to be controlled by a tyrannical matriarchy. It truly saddens me ... But ... live and let live, God Bless America

 

[seanv]

Wow.....

Petition signed

 

[peckinpahhombre]

This is sad news indeed, but is a sign of the times, as Canada and the world is increasingly populated by people that want to suck on the tete of government and have government protect them from anything they are offended by and that they regard as a societal ill. The US isn't far behind and the demographic trend there says they will get there very soon.
To be honest, this plain packaging law doesn't impact me one iota. Given the high taxes, you would have to be cognitively deficient to buy cigars in Canada even without the plain packaging law. I have always bought offshore and will continue to do so.

 

[coldsmoke]

Bah! How many Canadians actually buy their cigars in Canada?

 

[mso489]

I heard they will require a label in large day-glo lettering saying, "Your Mother Is A Poopy Old Hag." And if they go out of business, they don't care.

 

[bluto]

You guys haven't heard about taxation funded class action law suits then ..
Ok , saving that one for another day

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I'm with Duane, the labels are not what attracts me. Finally, cigars will be seen for what matters. Having had years studying design and marketing, the love of the labels and packaging is a love for the lie that tricks us into false preconceptions. I'd rather a company make killer T-shirts than spend a ton of money on freakin' boxes and such. Make all pipe tobacco bulk, and let all cigars be naked.
I think that the main goal here is to eventually put the entire tobacco industry out of business. Lets see just how effective labels and boxes are at enticing in new smokers. Get rid of them and see if the industry survives.
Ehhh, actually, I am just glad it is happening in some far off distant uninhabitable area and not here. ::

 

[crashthegrey]

Tobacco art was cool, for sure, but so long as tobacco remains, I'll not be too concerned with what the package looks like, personally. Not that I support this move by the Canadian government, but things could be worse.

 

[sparroa]

Nobody has mentioned how much this compromises the authenticity and integrity of the cigar brands in question. Plain packaging laws are a counterfeiter's dream.
They also successfully undermine the history/production/tobacco that makes each brand unique and they are reducing cigars from luxury consumer goods to a bulk commodity where quality doesn't mean anything and price is the only point of differentiation. Plain packaging laws don't just kill any kind of art or creativity but they also restrict what information can be shared about a product including its origins and flavour profile and other selling points.
Without education, many people opt for the lowest price and that is just one more nail in the coffin for the critically endangered Canadian tobacconists that have managed to survive this long in such a hostile environment like a scraggly tree which is growing on the edge of a windswept cliff.
"but so long as tobacco remains, I'll not be too concerned with what the package looks like"
"Let them do their worst, the first time I stepped into a walk in humidor it wasn't the smell of the labels that made me want to smoke them."



I don't intend to pick on you gentlemen but these comments take for granted that the tobacco and walk-in humidors will remain but I assure you that they will vanish from Canada because of such draconian restrictions. A country of 35 million is already reduced to a handful of quality shops from coast to coast. In most of the nation, people think the word "cigars" refers to miniature Captain Blacks made from flavoured tobacco dust. And I've yet to find a gas station with its own walk-in humidor...



"Make all pipe tobacco bulk, and let all cigars be naked.

I think that the main goal here is to eventually put the entire tobacco industry out of business."
You included these in separate paragraphs but they belong together because without intellectual property such as brands there would be no pipe/cigar/cigarette companies left in existence to produce our favourite products. If everything is bulk and unbranded then there is no motivation to produce diverse ranges of quality products and the consumer suffers accordingly. These measures are definitely designed to kill the tobacco industry itself because time has shown that no amount of sin taxation and nanny state intervention will force people to quit smoking altogether. The goal instead is to wipe the manufacturers off the map and make smoking a fringe activity.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Actually, I would think that the more consumers stop relying on labels to "tell" them what is quality, and they rely on their own senses, then it becomes impossible to counterfeit quality. But, of course dimwits that have to rely on labels and cannot tell a good cigar from a bad one would be lost... and it would probably be best for that person to take up a new hobby instead of relying on a brand to tell them what is good.

without intellectual property such as brands there would be no pipe/cigar/cigarette companies left in existence to produce our favorite products.

I have no idea why you say this. If all C&D has going for it is the tin art, then they should have gone tits up a long time ago with their crappy tin art. All Lane does is unbranded stuff, and AROMATICS at that, and they are the Nation's #1 in sales. So, I don't understand this statement.
Yes, yes, labels, and artwork makes the hobby cool. I agree. But, is it totally dependent on it? I don't think so. All I want is tobacco. I can make my own labels, and often when I jar up bulk blends I give them my own name, because come on, frankly bulk names all suck.