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Sick of Smoking Warnings? Hide Them!  Email this storySep 30, 11:03 am ET PARIS (Reuters) - A French firm has found a way to make money out of the large health warnings now required on new cigarette packs in the European Union -- selling colorful cases to hide them. The Paris-based Dolmen has begun selling thin cardboard boxes for smokers to cover cigarette packs which, under an EU rule that came into force on Tuesday, must carry warnings such as "Smoking Kills" on every side. "People don't like to go around with these ugly packs, they're a little bit ashamed," said Christophe Blanc, a Dolmen official behind the idea. The casings cost around 60 eurocents (70 U.S. cents) and are decorated with checkerboard and flower patterns or portraits of Cuban revolutionary hero Ernesto "Che" Guevara. "We decided to launch the cases -- called Crazy Pack -- when we heard this summer the cigarette packs would be mutilated with warnings," Blanc told Reuters. Dolmen has already sold 600,000 Crazy Packs to tobacco wholesalers and hoped to renew orders every month by creating new designs. However, some tobacconists suggested French smokers might not be keen on laying out more money for the cases just as the government has slapped on new taxes that will inflate the price of a packet of cigarettes by 40 percent over the coming year. |
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