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In a bad week for tobacco products at the show Habanos reminded us all last night of the pulling power of the category at the Cuban cigar house’s annual dinner at the Carlton.
Guests, including many of the industry’s top retailers, enjoyed the new Short Churchills from the great Romeo y Julieta brand. A classically balanced medium-bodied cigar, it is named after the great British Prime Minister Winston Churchill who became an aficionado of the brand following his first visit to the island in 1946.
Maybe the tobacco sector – coming to terms with this week’s outrageous last-minute Cannes crackdown – needs to draw on the great man’s words when he spoke of the impending war faced by Great Britain in 1940. With a little artistic licence it would read like this: “We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our category, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds.”
One thing is for sure, if the tobacco sector is not defended here at the Cannes show, the event’s level of support from the category could go up in as big a plume of smoke as any emitted by the great man himself.
[Pictured left to right: Martin Moodie, Harry Diehl and Claus Heinemann from Gebr Heinemann and Habanos Commercial Vice President Worldwide Manuel Garcia.]
law limits on tobacco and alcohol are really problems in France, although the french people smoke and drink a lot!