Why are Marlboro cigarettes so popular in France?

The chic choice.

How indeed?

Marlboro is on par with Coca-Cola and McDonald’s in terms of brand recognition and worldwide popularity.

30% of the French smoke, while 15% of Americans do. Is lung cancer epidemic there?

The De Stijl packaging

[quote]the hearts of le[bold]s[/bold] Français?

The French posses a strong "joie de vivre."

Americans tend to be health scolds.

I would imagine it’s cowboy, western chic. American icon such as Coca Cola, already mentioned. Classique.

R4, The EU does not allow the additives that are in US cigarettes. For instance, a unadulterated cigarette will go out on its own if left in an ashtray. US cigarettes have an additive that makes the cigarette continue to burn; so, the smoker smokes more cigarettes. There was a time (I don't know if it is still true) when tobacco companies *added* nicotine to cigarettes to increase their addictive qualities.

R9, link

Cigarettes in the US have been required to be FSCs(Fire Safe Cigarettes) for at least a decade now. Every US pack has an FSC marking on it. I remember when it happened here in the US. American cigarettes USED to burn all the way down if left alone, now after a centimeter or so they extinguish themselves.

R11, And, that is typical of the problem... use an additive to correct a problem that was created by adding an additive.

[quote]This standard requires that cigarettes self-extinguish when they are not being actively smoked. Legislative efforts requiring this design standard at the local point of sale have been highly successful. By 2011, all fifty states and the District of Columbia (DC) had implemented legislation requiring all cigarettes sold locally meet the “fire-safe” standard

Explain more, r12.

r11 and r13

Oh, they are so....James Dean.

James Dean was already dead when Marbs came on the market.

My bad, R6. I took German in college.

Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, and Renée French smoke Marbs, as themselves in the Jim Jarmusch indie vignette film COFFEE & CIGARETTES (2003).

The site Movie Smokes Database also lists dozens of other films in which the brand appears, including: LA VÉRITÉ, THREE COLOURS: RED, MODESTY BLAIZE, THE SHINING, THE DEAD ZONE, FULL METAL JACKET, DRUGSTORE COWBOY, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, THE USUAL SUSPECTS, and GIRL, INTERRUPTED.

Fashion, Malboro is an iconic brand and the French are a vain bunch.

Lung Cancer in France is higher than in the US.

Once Laramie was discontinued, it was the only logical option.

[quote]Americans tend to be health scolds.

Then why are they so fat??

Because out of shape and overweight people have been trained and tricked into thinking of simple-carbs and quick sugar as a non-drug.

Americans were a lot thinner when smoking and drinking were not frowned upon.

I haven't smoked in decades, but when I did I recall the Marlboro cigarettes I bought in Italy and Greece were different from American-purchased Marlboros. They seemed a bit thicker and the tobacco seemed packed slightly different as well. Knowing the product well I discerned a slight difference. They only had the box for sale, not the soft pack, which may be gone now even here in the US.

Marb Reds are the best cigs!

I smoked cigs for about 15 years. I switched brands quite a bit, including smoking menthols.

Marlboros simply tasted good, even the Marlboro Lights tasted good.

Good taste plus the best package design (esp. the hard box) adds up to: very popular.

Here's the classic Marlboro "reds" box with the beautiful typeface / font.

Lots of cigarettes now are budget priced, with cheap tobacco and taste like shit. Pall Mall, Chesterfield, and L&M are sup-premium and are awful. Then you have the others like Maverick and Eagle 20s, lots of crap brands.

Marlboro, Camel and Parliament are some of the few premium cigarette brands with quality tobacco that are still on the market and widely sold.

I smoked throughout my twenties on and off, and I always hated Marlboro Reds. Marlboro lights are palatable, but still not great IMO. I always went with American Spirits, or occasionally, Parliament (lights). I had to take it easy with Parliaments, though; though they tasted great, they are extraordinarily harsh for a light cigarette. If I had a night out and smoked a pack of them, I REALLY felt it in the morning—my throat would be killing me. American Spirits, by contrast, never left me feeling like that.

Funnily enough, I thought Marlboro Reds were a very smooth and tasty smoke. I could never stand American Spirits, I thought they were very harsh and always gave me a headache.

This thread is making me crave a cigarette.

I also love Merit cigs (the ones in the pack with the brown and gold stripes) but those damn things are very hard to find now.

My grandmother smoked Merits r32

[quote] This thread is making me crave a cigarette.

Me, too, R31. I need to unfollow this.

Marlboros did have attractive packaging and branding.

[quote] James Dean was already dead when Marbs came on the market.

Hmm. Marlboro debuted in America in 1924 but was marketed as a ladies cigarette until it became a man's cowboy cigarette in the 1950s.

If you smoked French cigarettes OP, you'd understand. With few exceptions, French cigarettes do not taste nearly as good as a Marlboro Red. French cigs usually emit an acrid stench, like a stale cheap cigar.

Marlboro in its current form debuted in 1955, so actually maybe James Dean was still alive, depending on when in 1955 Marlboro's re-branding happened.

The brand history is interesting, I've read that the Marlboro ad campaign with the cowboys is the most successful ad campaign of all time.

Marlboro is popular all over Europe, not just France. Same in Asia.

Good marketing.

It's amazing how Marlboro has retained it's popularity. I remember when I worked in a grocery in the Eighties, the popular brands were Merit , True, Virginia Slims, Parliament, Salem and Winston. Old timers smoked Lucky Strikes, Chesterfield, Lark and Pall Mall. Black people almost all smoked Newport (or possibly Kool). Now Marlboro still sells, but most of the others have disappeared.

You know you just butched it up in public with the Marlboros, but in private you were all Virginia Slims gals.

When I was in high school in the early/ mid 90s (when smoking among teenagers was still fairly common) it was nearly 100% Marlboro, about evenly split between Reds and Lights, and a few Camel smokers. I can't remember any students smoking any other brands, and no menthols at all.

I worked at the US Embassy in Rome in 1980. We had a small commissary where we could get things that were hard to find in Italy, and things imported from the US without paying duty. I wasn't a smoke or drinker, but I bought lots of Marlboro cigarettes and Johnnie Walker Black Label to give as tips to the doorman and maintenance guys in my apartment building. And for some reason, the maids always asked me to buy them Windex.

[quote]You know you just butched it up in public with the Marlboros, but in private you were all Virginia Slims gals.

Lots of moms smoked VS back in the Eighties.

r41 out of all the brands you mentioned Marlboro, Parliament and Newport are the only ones that are still widely smoked. The others are either gone or nearly gone at this point.

R37 got it. Gitanes, a popular French brand, has the acrid aroma of burning horse shit

I tried Gitanes and Gauloise when I was in Paris and yes it was like horse shit! I couldn't smoke French cigs. Conversely, British cigs seemed very weak and "airy" to me. American cigs are much different.

All of your memories seem to be from the 80s. lol

I smoked luxury British cigarettes, and Dunhill, and the cheapest local cigarettes I found in Cairo, Bombay, and Rio. Of course French cigarettes were the coolest to smoke in American college and in downtown NYC.

The only current student smoker I know, aged about 24 now, said to me a few years back that after studying for two years in Paris, he had grown to despise the French for their bureaucratic pettiness and their snobbish indolence, and for that reason would rather quit than smoke their domestic brands. He's Dutch and gay, though, so that might be part of it.

How can anyone but the richest students smoke a lot of branded commercial cigarettes these days? Cigarettes are 10 Euros a pack in Paris.

r52 Haven't you noticed that poor people always seem to be able to afford things like cigarettes, liquor, drugs, and tattoos?

Yes R53 but they also are not in college. Poor kids in college are penniless. I know this having been one and now being a college teacher.

Marlboro surely is the most famous brand of cigarettes, and hugely popular for many decades. It's a favorite brand in much of Europe from my observation; if people smoke something else it's usually for economy.

And it has a certain appeal as an iconic American brand (maybe the only time I've used that word without quotation marks.)

The chart below shows Marlboro's place among brands.

R46 Actually, they just relaunched Chesterfield a few years ago. I don't smoke but I love the Chesterfield logo, it is very classy.

Chesterfields, Camels, and Parliaments make me think of old blues musicians, or white boys who LARP as them.

L.S.M.F.T., OP.

No love for Old Gold's?

Pall Mall, Chesterfield and L&M were all re-branded as budget cigs and are garbage now. Really cheap tobacco.

It’s toasted.

Well, I smoke Virginia Slims, but I never inhale.

Even I like Marlboro packaging, and I don't smoke. Mom smoked Parliaments and Dad smoked Larks (Have a Lark, have a Lark, have a Lark today!).

Back in the 80s I had a roommate who smoked Old Golds, r59. We had to make late night trips to Freaky Foods (R.I.P.) in Houston, which was one of the few places that carried them. I searched and could not find a photo of the store; you don't know what you've got til it's gone.

A woman I knew smoked Eve cigarettes, which were kinda pretty.

My grandfather smoked the old-timey unfiltered Chesterfields, which even in the 1980s were hard to find. I'm sure they're no longer made.

I don't really smoke. In college, I would occasionally smoke while drinking or smoking weed. What I miss is clove cigarettes. You can now buy clove cigars, but they seem different.

When visiting friends or relatives in Europe, it was always customary to bring them several cartons of duty free American cigarettes.

My mom smoked Salem, aka "menthol for white people."

I saw a sign in the gas station today that Lucky Strikes are coming back.

The last cigarette worth smoking, English Ovals, were discontinued in 2017. They were actually Phillip Morris’ oldest brand. Dunhills used to be good, but so bought a carton of them at a duty free store and needed yongiving them all away. Had to cut 2/3 of the filter off to make them tolerable.

[quote]I saw a sign in the gas station today that Lucky Strikes are coming back.

Are they coming back from the war?