I have a character who's a smoker and I want to emphasize his cigarettes of choice to make it work within my character description.

The thing is that he's smoking an expensive, high-quality brand, as opposed to everyone around him.

So I need the name of a high quality brand and a relatively affordable one.

Thanks.

[This message has been edited by Foste (edited December 20, 2010).]

I also found this article supposedly based on actual studies done by Phillip Morris.

"A pack of Reds" are more than just cigarettes, Marlboro Reds are a huge part of Americana. Likewise, Camel offered merchandise with points you could collect on the packaging--everything from flashy ashtrays to pool tables--so became a household name. Wintson has sponsored racing for years and years, and has its claim there. Pall Malls or Lucky Strikes are "spitters," thus called because they have no filters and the smoker had to keep spitting out the loose tobacco that fell into his/her mouth. Lucky Strikes came back into prominence in the 1980s due to Don Johnson's portrayal of "Sonny Crocket" on Miami Vice (a cop television show). Chesterfields and Tarrytons are cigarette brands Stephen King kept in the spotlight in his work.

Now, most of these brands run right about the same cost, but American smokers develop strong loyalties to which company they smoke. If you're looking for the character to have a smoking habit which is "special" for special's sake, I suggest he smoke Cloves. That is usually passed off as more sophisticated.

By the way--and speaking--, if you want someone who's "classy" or unique in his smoking habits, it is imperative that he light them with a refillable lighter, not a cheap convenience store lighter. I recommend a Zippo, if for no other reason than almost everyone has seen one. The distinct click of a Zippo is something that many smokers and nonsmokers alike will recognize.

Cloves, nowadays, come off as the choice of a hipster, someone trying too hard to be cool. Also, since they use a flavoring adjunct, a strong one, they're not exactly the choice of someone who smokes for their tobacco. While Reds. especially, are a slice of Americana, they might not be the thing you're looking for.

Pall Malls aren't a bad choice. They were THE brand for Vonnegut, who referred to them as "The classy way to commit suicide." King smoked them, too.

I've been trying to cut back and eventually quit, but I reach for Marlboro Reds, Pall Malls, or Camels. On a really, really bad day, or on those very rare occasions I get a haircut (I have naval length hair and going to a barber can be a stressful experience for me, especially since my lifelong barber friend took ill and retired), I go with grampa's choice and get a pack of Lucky Strikes.

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'd chance to say that Luckies got big well before Miami Vice. They've been associated with the US Army since at least WWII, when they came with K-rations, and were a favorite among returning soldiers. My grandfather and step-grandfather both smoked them. I don't know if they "fell from grace", so to speak, for a period, but a friend of mine once quipped, after lighting one, "I got a pack of Lucky Strikes and a Zippo lighter. I feel like I'm about to land on Normandy."

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Yeah, that's why I said "came back into prominence..."

Because if it's a girl, you could use Virginia Slims.

Even if not, Benson & Hedges might be another choice. Back in my ill-spent youth I smoked a bit and was a prissy smoker, Benson and Hedges ultra lights menthol. Mouthful just to ask for them at the convenience store.

Oh, and there are those longer cigar-looking but still a cigarette things...I don't recall their name in the U.S. but in france the brand was Time ("teem") Fancy looking, weird, and definitely more expensive than regular cigs.

That is an interesting question. What would the rich, or someone with very refined tastes-or who just wants to look like he is rich, smoke? Of course if they are rich enough they would have someone smoke for them.

But that brings up one question. Does your character have refined tastes or does he just want people to think he does? If it's the second he may be smoking those little cigars that aren't much bigger than a cigarette. He probably would think they are for rich people but there're probably not really. If you get what I mean.

Most cigar smokers favor a distinct lighting method, usually either a hard blue-flamed "jet" butane lighter or, for traditionalists, wooden matches, never cardboard.

A cigar is a tough sell for indoor smoking unless the place happens to have have extra venilation and fans, or a ton of open windows, since they cloud a room worse than either pipe or cigarette smoke ever could.

As for that study, having worked at a convenience store and growing up surrounded by Russians, yes, Russian smokers almost all smoke Parliament lights (the cocaine thing is because Parliaments have a cup shaped recess in the filter, out of which the addicts can inhale their nasty powder), but no, Newports (and other menthol cigarettes) do not contain glass.

A sidenote: I don't know how touchy the tobacco industry is about writers using their brand names, or whether or not they get touchy if the names are not followed by some "TM" or "C" or "R" or whatever...personally I think it's silly nonsense, but I know of nuisance cases against writers for using brand names of other industries...

I think I should be a bit more specific. The character is a male convict. The other convicts occasionally manage to smuggle some cheap packs into prison, but he's always smoking these expensive, classy grits (though I think Pall Mall or Marlboro Red might do the trick. Over here none of my smoker acquaintances smoke Marlboro because they are so darn expensive).
He's definitely trying to come off as a "cool cat".

The POV character remarks that he is always producing them "out of thin air, like a magician."

I've never been a smoker but grew up in a smokin' town, where they manufactured Pall Mall (probably top brand), Camel, Winston, Salem, Camel, Doral, Kool ("world-famous menthol cig"), and the more recent slim and super-slim Misty and Capri brands.

While in prison, your character might have had to jury-rig cigarettes from old or leftover tobacco, maybe even taken from discarded cigarette butts. He might have used scraps of paper, or even smuggled in rolling papers (a few brands of papers that come to mind are Zig-Zag, TOP, E-Z Wider, and Bugler, which wikipedia says was popular in jails back when tobacco wasn't classified as contraband, so it sorta fits in that sense)to put together his cigarettes.

Another thing is that since they don't come in little cardboard boxes or paper soft packs of 20, he'll almost certainly have a cigarette case. Stylish indeed. A cigarette case, perhaps a trick one that might let him seem to pull them out of nowhere, as you said, isn't a bad choice if you want to create the impression of a "special" or dedicated smoker, even if he's just taking pre-rolled smokes out of the pack and putting them in there for safe keeping.

Thank you everyone, I think I'll go with rolled cigarettes. It's a small detail but an important one.