Stogie News: A Smelly Cure Worse than the Disease

Here at StogieGuys.com, we make no secret of our distaste for fascist smoking bans.

We see the issue as one of personal freedom and responsibility, where private property owners should be free – but never compelled – to enforce bans. What’s more, the flimsy “science” used to justify such laws is flawed at best.

But for all the writing we’ve done on the negative consequences of forced smoking bans, there’s one that has been completely overlooked: smoke makes bars smell better.

At least that’s what one English company is banking on. Ambius, which is in the business of providing ambiance for workplaces, is now selling Glade-like devices that smell like apples, crisp cotton, and roses to bars across the U.K.

Why now? As an Ambius executive explains, once the countrywide ban on indoor smoking goes into effect on July 1, the smoke that once covered up smells like stale beer and filthy patrons in centuries-old pubs will be gone, leaving bars smelling like…well, bars.

“Most people think with all this smoke going away everything is going to be fine and dandy,” Jeff Mariola, managing director of Ambius, told Reuters. “The reality is, when you remove the odor, you are left with what you couldn’t smell…it’s going to hit everyone right in the face.”

A bit ironic, don’t you think? One of the main reasons paternalistic do-gooders support government-imposed smoking bans is because “smoke stinks.”

Apparently not as bad as the customers themselves – at least in England, anyways.

–Patrick A

Tags: cigars