"We are in the cigarette business. We are not in the sports business. We use sports as an avenue for advertising our products." Tobacco Industry Executive (at RJR)

Using tennis to sell death

Maximum pleasure

The title sponsor of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors presents itself on the website of the tournament with the following prose:

Isn't this beautifully said? The merchants of Davideath do not only stretch their brand, they also stretch their advertising rhetoric beyond irony and antiphrasis, exploring new territories of human gullibity: "The Good Life" - a trademark officially registered in the tobacco category - is their "open Sesame" to profitability from selling a deadly product to those influenceable enough to buy this kind of B.S. Just in the same way they are selling Gauloises (another Imperial Tobacco brand), a product that traps people in addiction, under the slogan "Freedom forever."

However, reality has a strong tendency to strike back, often at the moment least expected.

When you see Davidoff The Good Life, Davideath The Ugly Death may not be far away. Actually, it just takes a pack of Davidoff Gold cigarettes sold in Switzerland to have that experience. The back side of the pack offers an extraordinary juxtaposition where reality does hit hard indeed. But at least, Zino Davidoff being quoted saying that "these carefully selected tobaccos have been skillfully blended to assure your pleasure" does not run the risk of being contradicted by the corpse of the former smoker in the morgue!