Does Your Tobacco Look Different Lately?

[vakkotaur]

As of June 22 US law changed and cigarette makers could no longer use terms like light, ultra light, medium, low, or mild. For most non-(cigarette)-smokers this change means little and might have been nothing more than an "Oh, that's interesting" article. For smokers, it has lead to some confusion, depending on preference. And even some non-smokers, those who work in places where cigarettes are sold, are affected as they have to not only translate between the old term that people are familiar with to the new terms or looks that are actually present, but also explain why the pack doesn't say "light" or such. To make it bit more confusing, there are a few different standards of what is done now, derived from earlier packaging, depending upon brand.

See this article or this one for details.

No big deal, right? It's just the same old stuff with differently labeled packs. Except some people are set in their ways and expectations. "It has to say 'Medium' on the box." gets awkward when that's now "Red Label" and someone simply cannot grasp that things have changed in name but it's exact same product. Or someone who buys softpacks (which sell slower than the hard packs or flip top boxes) still sees 'light' from the old stock that has yet to rotate out and then encounters 'blue' or 'gold' or such for the first time. "Don't you have lights?" And then one gets to explain why they are getting "golds" or "blues" instead now.

Comments

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

The menthols are still out there. For Marlboro, they now have (tiny) words on the end/top of the box "gold pack" for light, "silver pack" for ultra. The blend numbers (27 and 54, I think, as well as Special) are still there as they don't imply any "lightness." The lighter menthols are in slightly lighter (ha!) greens, too. To add to the confusion, the 'full' menthol box has a (silver? gold?) stripe around it which makes it look like it might be light or ultra. At least the box is a darker green.