Puffing Pike Place: How Camel's Marketing Team Views Seattle
Do you love the sweet feeling of a long drag of chemically-enhanced tobacco? Do you love Seattle? Have you been feeling a little bored by the traditional packaging of your favorite cigs? Well you’re in luck, Ms. Seattle Smoker!
As we've mentioned here and there, everybody’s favorite tobacco giants, R.J. Reynolds have released city-themed Camel cigarettes. In a strangely misguided attempt to encourage tourism in various cities across the US including San Francisco, New Orleans, Austin and our very own smoky city, the company is featuring artistic representations of these destinations on the squares’ packaging (Seattle’s includes Mt. Rainier and Pike Place Market, natch). Purchase a pack, and you could win a chance to travel to any of the ten depicted cities. Or you could get cancer. They also feature outrageously clichéd descriptions of each town, which are actually kind of ignorantly adorable. Here is Seattle’s:
“Home of grunge, a coffee revolution and alternatives who'll probably tell you they're only happy when it rains. It's the smell of vinyl in that hidden record store, that worn T-shirt and a ticket stub with a scribbled phone number -- all with the bold spirit of our Gold Rush ancestors who didn't think twice before breaking free for the glowing future ahead."
Sounds just like home, right? We’re willing to bet you act with the bold spirit of our Gold Rush ancestors in all your daily endeavors.
Expectedly, Governor Gregoire and a slew of the other cities’ officials ain’t pleased. She probably just needs to stand in the rain and go smell a record store to calm down.
