CI "Fake" Cigars?

[Tman]

The problem I have is that we're arguing over a $1.50 stick. Sure, CI makes outrageous description, but who in here takes that claim seriously? I think the bigger problem is the slandering of cigars that didn't need slandering. I think "unsmokable", "total crap", "floor sweeping", and top it off with "fake cigar" mentioned in the video is a bit much. Is there any merit to his mention? It's unprofessional and quite frankly upsetting when he knows he has quite a respectable cigar smoking audience in hand that takes reviews seriously. Let's not forget, having the attitude of getting something for nothing is what gets this economy in trouble in the first place. What is to be gained by doing that video? It could have been done with much more class.

[Skeat5353]

I think "unsmokable", "total crap", "floor sweeping", and top it off with "fake cigar" mentioned in the video is a bit much. Is there any merit to his mention? It's unprofessional and quite frankly upsetting when he knows he has quite a respectable cigar smoking audience in hand that takes reviews seriously.

I agree. Bryan Glynn has a wide audience. So what he says on his webcast has some influence on consumers. If he did call the cigar 'fake' because it contained short filler, then he is technically wrong on his part. Whether it is false or libelous is another question entirely. But again, Glynn is dealing in a gray area. What defines 'premium'? Has anyone ever seen cigars, cheap or otherwise, marketed as 'non-premium'? There's no such category. For Glynn to say that a cigar is 'fake' exposes him as someone who is uninformed in the tactics of marketing. CI has done nothing wrong other than sell a 'non-premium' cigar advertised as 'premium.' Fake, I don't think so. Misleading, perhaps.

Marketing a cigar as 'premium' places it in the same group of real, high-end cigars, like Davidoff, My Father, Padron, Fuente, etc. That's where the deception lies. When CI tells you a cigar made with short filler is 'premium,' it doesn't mean that cigar is 'fake' as Glynn claims. It's just 'non-premium.' I think what we're talking about here is false advertising. When I watch a Carl's Jr. commercial and there's a super-model in a bikini with huge tits eating a massive 1/4 pound hamburger loaded with fat, I don't believe it. That's just common sense kicking in. But if I go buy that product and consume it, that's on me--not on Carls Jr. The same idea applies to Budweiser commercials. There's a bunch of hot chicks sucking down bottles of beer and everyone's having a great time. But when I go to my local bar, there's only sad, fat alcoholics sucking down Budweisers.

Until the Federal Government passes laws on the way cigars are marketed, CI is well within its legal bounds to market 'non-premium' garbage in the same market with genuine 'premium' cigars. Really it's up to us, the consumer, to discriminate. Nevertheless, Bryan Glynn has every right to make a video showing people what's in a cheap cigar marketed as 'premium.' That just protects the consumers of his audience. By the same token, until laws say otherwise, CI is well within its rights to market a 'non-premium' cigar as a 'premium' one.

Like the great P.T. Barnum said, "There's a sucker born every minute."