Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

From the New York Times there is this: 

2.4 trillion

— That is how many cigarettes are sold in China each year, nearly half the global total.  Xi Jinping, the country’s president, may have quit smoking years ago.  But his government hasn’t done much to help its people join him.

Cigarette sales are falling in most countries.  In China, the numbers are going up. Smoking there rose 39 percent from 2003 to 2023, even as it fell 26 percent in the rest of the world. And while younger people are smoking less, older ones are smoking more, in part because it’s an inexpensive habit in China: A pack costs roughly $3. 

In contrast, if you want a pack of Marlboro Reds from my local bodega?  That’ll be $20.

Joy Dong, who reported on all this from Hong Kong, says it shows how powerful China’s state tobacco company is. It’s a literal monopoly: A single agency both regulates the cigarette industry and makes most of the smokes.

The government’s brand, the China National Tobacco Corporation, generated roughly $244 billion in profit and tax revenue in 2025. That’s about 7 percent of national government revenue and nearly what China says it spends on defense. 

Big numbers!

Smoke 'em if you got 'em... 

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

The device in the photo is the real deal.  A bizarre as it appears it is not AI generated,  photo shopped or a social media hoax.  It's a modern day Hookah.  If you came of age in the 1970's you would know what a water pipe or Hookah is.  But I digress.

The Robot Smoker was a novelty ashtray sold by Sears, Roebuck & Company around 1957.  It has a modern-sounding name but wasn't at all robotic; just playing on the technological advancements of  and more likely a play on the 'Space Age' aesthetic of the time.

You placed a lit cigarette into the holder of the weighted base and a long, flexible tube allowed you to have a smoke at a distance without getting up from your chair, interrupt your television viewing, putting down your book or paper or getting out of bed.  The only thing even close to robotic was the Automatic Butt Ejector; a spring-loaded feature that flipped the spent filter our so you didn't have to touch it.  Priced at $2.97 (roughly $30 nowadays).  An extra dollar got you an upgrade for a two person model to accommodate whomever you were sleeping with. 

Sears sold all sorta stuff throughout its long merchandising lifetime including novelties and gadgets.  Unlike a useful Craftsman wrench this device never became a household staple.  Within a couple of decades the health impacts of tobacco use became better-known and elaborate smoking apparatus fell out of favor. 

A couple of my pals are firefighters with the local department and they would likely be horrified by this.  The ad explicitly suggests its use while lounging in a chair or in bed.  Vintage collectors will tell you that if you coughed or sneezed into the tube you could launch a lit cig across the room.  Sounds like a peril that might very-well void the homeowners insurance you purchased from Sears as well.

Fast Fact:  Elektro the Moto-Man was a giant seven foot tall robot that demonstrated its ability to smoke cigarettes at the 1939 World's Fair ostensibly to demonstrate its air-intake system.  Maybe that's the inspiration for the name?  Alas, all is lost to history.

My smoking history was short-lived.  Good thing.   

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

On the subject of cigarettes there is this:

A perfect example of Yankee Ingenuity - a cigarette holder for nudists.

If a smoker finds their self at a nude beach, colony or camp what do you do besides carry a purse or a fanny pack (pardon the pun) when you haven't any pockets?

I am told by the Gemini AI that historically this device was pitched by a delegate to a nudist convention.  A sporty leather case that holds a standard pack of cigs to the wearer's leg by means of an elastic band.

Brilliance!

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

One of the most storied names in the tobacco business is Chesterfield; remembered for its rapid rise in popularity in the med-20th century and its iconic They Satisfy marketing campaigns.

The cigarette brand can trace its lineage all the way back to 1873 when it was introduced by the Drummond Tobacco Company of St. Louis, Missouri. 

In 1911 Chesterfield was acquired by Liggett & Myers (L&M) and they reblended it into a Turkish-Virginia mix to compete with Camel and Lucky Strike.  In the 1930s and 40s it was the Big Three - Camel, Lucky Strike and Chesterfield - that engaged in a fierce tobacco war spending millions on radio, print and celebrity endorsements to grab their share of a rapidly-growing population of smokers.

During World War II combat field rations (C and K) included a pack of three, four or nine cigarettes introducing an entire generation of servicemen and women to smoking on the the government's dime.  While Chesterfield was most frequently found in K rations, by the end of the war industry leader Camel had earmarked more than half of their total annual production to the military.

Chesterfield's signature slogan was They Satisfy - eventually introducing Blow Some My Way in a not so subtle reach for women smokers. The brand was famously pitched by Ronald Reagan, Lucille Ball and James Arness (Gunsmoke).  It was the brand of choice for James Bond and the first of countless smokes consumed by author Stephen King.

 

Nowadays, the brand is owned by Altria (manufactured by subsidiary Philip Morris USA) and after a brief hiatus was reintroduced to the US market in 2019 with filters - Gasp!  Philip Morris International supplies the rest of the world.

I grew-up with second hand smoke.  Unfiltered Chesterfields were my late, great mother's smoke of choice until my daughter was born 

Fast Fact: The inclusion of cigarettes in military rations did not officially end until 1975 as health concerns finally outweighed any lingering morale-boosting benefit.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em.....