Stogie Commentary: It Takes a Worried Man…

If I were the worrying kind, I might be concerned about the future of cigars. No, not because of all the restrictive laws and rising taxes and health scares. While those are all serious threats, I’m more anxious about the fact that cigars seem to be everywhere these days.

I can hardly pick up a magazine without having the smiling face of Avo Uvezian look back at me or seeing a Macanudo smoker wistfully thinking about his pickup. And I’m certainly not just talking about cigar magazines.

The other day, while waiting to get my hair cut, I was thumbing through Popular Mechanics and there, big as life, was a Punch ad. I can’t remember the last time I thumbed through any magazine with a significant male audience without seeing at least one cigar ad.

I also recently ran across two photos of cigar smokers in one day’s newspaper. A few nights later, I noticed a character—not even a villain—in a TV series casually smoking a cigar.

What’s wrong with all that? Well, premium cigar smokers are obviously a small crowd in the grand scheme of things, and manufacturers need to work at getting more people to join the party. I would surely agree with that.

Heck, I think everybody should smoke good cigars. Those who don’t, quite simply, don’t know what they’re missing. Those who do are better people for it.

But could this be the beginning of a cigar bubble? Not like the past “boom” that was fed and then killed by lousy cigars. But the kind of overexposure that leads public opinion to quickly turn on something or someone, be it Paris Hilton or disco.

Maybe, though, this is where all the smoking opponents are doing us a favor. With it now nearly impossible to smoke anywhere you can be seen, perhaps I’m overestimating the danger of exposure, much less overexposure.

So, I think I’ll just light up and relax. Where’s that copy of Popular Mechanics?

-George E

photo credit: Flickr