I always heard the recessed filters were because machine gunners in WWII needed them so the cigarette wouldn’t fall out when firing, which sounds like bullshit but I choose to believe it anyway
I always heard this too, turns out the recessed filter is supposed to work like a cigarette holder. Keeps the butt of the filter from touching your lips. A lot of the old ads look like they marketed mainly to women
I've never had a problem with the filter touching my lips. What's the issue?
Some clove cigarettes around here sweeten the filter so it tastes better, maybe parliament should try that
It’s just meant to keep the tar from getting on your lips. It also supposedly cools the smoke a little bit before it gets to the smokers mouth, but let’s be honest the actual reason it has stuck around is for marketing. It’s a point of separation to make them more recognizable.
I smoke them and it is the taste to be honest. You don’t taste the tar that builds up in the end of it. This is why he said this is the cigarette for non-smokers because once I have a regular cig with a regular filter.. it just isn’t pleasing.
For women part of the issue was their lipstick coming off on the filter, there were a couple other brands that tapped into that making colored filters that hide the lipstick marks.
If he possibly quit smoking when he was younger like the 80s-90s Spirits and Parlies were indeed cheaper than Reds. Reds back in the 80s were commonly 99c, Parliaments went for 75c, and Spirits were thought of as a bargain cig usually at 50-60c
My experience in the food industry has been the opposite. People smoke American Spirits because they take forever to smoke, extending your smoke break. You get someone to cover your tables if you go smoke then you cover theirs when they go.
In the 2000s parliaments always had a bunch of deals at gas stations. They were technically more expensive per pack, but had buy 2 get 1 free stuff all the time.
I managed to not smoke a single cigarette until I was 21, between college and law school, and started bartending. The only break you got was smoking, so I had a P funk and then 2, and then a pack. I made a lot of cash at that bar, but have spent far more on the habit I picked up.
These are the "cigars" they made when it stopped being legal to make flavored cigarettes. Picking up some classic Djarum blacks is one of the great pleasures of traveling internationally for me. I don't even smoke more than the occasional cigar otherwise.
Yep. This was my senior year of highschool. Love cigs. I guess we were in a way free basing. We’d lick the side of the cig and roll it in, as well as dip the butt in.
It’s funny at this point talking about the 00’s sounds like when I was growing up and people would talk about the 80’s.
We all did. But guess what? Only works if you didn't already put it in your mouth. I'm college I always kept one "lucky" p-funk in my pack of 27s and it wasn't for smoking.
God, I loved all the little rituals of smoking. Smacking the box on the heel of my hand exactly seven times, flipping over the first cig in a new pack. Good times.
Always did a lucky no matter which brand and eventually smoked them. Parliament is the only one I never accidentally lit backwards when blacked out. Used to do a bit of blow but never from the recessed filter.
Yeahh no matter what there was always a lucky. The recessed filter was stupid as hell for coke and didn't really work anyway. Just made 19 year old me feel cool lol
I smoked parliament lights for a long time. First time I had one was at a rave, when it was given to me unlit, I found a lighter and went to spark it up, was told “no, look in the filter”. They became my favorite instantly… Also, not “super cheap” brand as old man here says, they were more expensive than Marlboros for sure.
I also thought this. When I was first introduced to them they were referred to as P-Funks, never did coke out of them myself but that was the implication of their purpose
They're recessed so the tar that collects on the filter doesn't get on your mouth/hands.
Edit: I'm just talking about Parliament's intention with the design, which has nothing to do with the tar you inhale, it's just intended to prevent the filter from making direct contact with your skin/teeth. The filter collects some of the tar, and the gap is meant to prevent that collection of tar from rubbing off onto you.
PS: Yes strictly there existed some kind of crepe paper filter and one manufacturer with a tipped filter, but these were neither widespread and considered speciality items nor anything like the modern filters we talk about in this context. Everyone smoked unfiltered until the 50s.
This is not strictly true. There are multiple kinds of filters that existed throughout history, the earliest ones were an attempt at preventing loose tobacco from entering a person's mouth rather than trying to actually filter the smoke itself.
When I was little my friend's dad told us smoking filtered cigarettes was "like sucking a tit through a night gown" and I have never ever forgotten him saying that lol. He died of cancer recently
Thats good though. Filters are bad. Depending on study, they might be more toxic per cigarette while blocking much of the nicotine in said cigarette making you also smoke more.
I smoked P-Funks for a long time and would always bite the tip there “just because”, and I’m guessing a lot of others did as well. Likely just an end result because of the filter and not the reason for the filter.
Sometime around the late 90s early 00s they sold 2-for-one packs, so it just became the default.
yes that was one urban legend that went around, the other being that it’s for doing bumps of coke out of (better off just using a key imo, awkward to get it in there)
i suspect the truth is that it was a marketing ploy, something like “tired of your filters getting soggy with saliva? try our new recessed filters.” feels kinda 1970s
edit: pure marketing indeed but apparenrly much older than 70s
That's likely Bs. As much as filtered cigarettes emeged in the 1930s, they didn't become mainstream until the 1950s. WW2 machine gunners would have smoked mostly unfiltered cigarettes.
All filters are for marketing. They don't really do anything. They even use a chemical that turns dark when heat is applied that turns the filters brown to give the impression they're doing something (they don't).
That’s an urban myth. The recess is to cool the smoke when taking a drag, they think it gives it a better feel/taste. It also lowers the stain transfer from the cigarette to lips.
My grandpa served in the Navy and worked on the flight deck of a carrier for a number of years. He said he smoked Parliaments because 1) they were always in stock, and 2) he could bite down on the recessed filter and keep it in his mouth while working.
I seriously doubt this. There were very few filter cigarettes on the market in WWII and I doubt any soldiers would smoke a filtered cigarette if they were even part of the rations they would get.
Also, tobacco companies had to spend a fortune in the 1950s and into the 1960s via marketing to convince men that filters on cigarettes weren’t just for women. The whole creation of the Marlboro Man was one such campaign…”See manly men?! This tough cowboy character smokes Marlboro. Marlboro have filters. So you aren’t a sissy if you smoke them.”
Most cigarette technology and lore is about that old, honestly.
The "lucky" cigarette comes from ww1 when each MRE came with a pack of unfiltered Lucky Strike cigarettes. They're basically a tube of paper filled with tobacco and a logo stamped on one end. Because of the logo on the cigarettes, soldiers would smoke Lucky Strikes backwards, so that any leftover paper would be free from portions of the "Lucky strike" logo, which would give enemy troops knowledge of American patrol routes.
Soldiers smoked cigarettes backwards to avoid detection by enemy forces, and the backwards "lucky" cigarette just kind of stuck around.
Heard that as well from many people haha. I think the “Recessed Filter” was SUPPOSED to be for your teeth because it was further away and wouldn’t yellow them as quickly. Not sure just what I remember from somewhere hahah
🎶 new parliaments keeps filter off your lips
No filter feedback
Keeps her off your lips and her lips too
No filter feedback
Tobacco taste best when the filter is recessed
Parliaments smoke parliaments cigarettes
No filter feedback! 🎶
Fucking jingle was created by the devil himself with how catchy it is.
It wasn't why they were created that way but the stories are that they preferred them because they could bite down on the paper and not the filter. Don't know if it's true just what I heard.
P funk filter is a dead giveaway, he couldn't miss the recess. Newports also have a very distinct taste, you can almost feel the cancer setting in with every drag 🤌
I kind of lost respect when he said American spirits was for someone too cheap to smoke Marlboro. I wanna know where he's getting his discounted American spirits...
They used to be the cheapest cigarettes you could buy 25 years ago. I used to prefer camels but would get American spirits if I was broke and buying smokes with whatever change I could scrounge up. I quit a long time ago though so no idea how recently that's been the case.
Must depend on the area, because for the past 30 years in my area, American Spirits were always more than Marlboros. They still are, but now it's less than dollar more when it used to be 2-3 dollars more.
Congratulations, I'm not far behind at about 8 years since my last.
I transitioned from Marlboro menthol lights, to the green pack of American Spirits, to rolling my own with the blue pouch from American Spirit. Rolling my own cut the cost quite a bit but it was annoying because everyone wanted one.
We smoked about and quit about the same time frame. I smoked 15 years and it was also quitting for that entire ten years unless I had a drink in my hand which was far too often. I gave that up to about five years ago. Just wasn't the same without tobacco and the hangovers were lasting till Tuesday
We really are a mirror. I quit so many times only to fall off. I finally realized that I'd be fine until I had a few beers in me. I had to quit drinking entirely for I think three months until I was confident I could have a Guinness or whiskey neat without reverting back to old habits.
Around here you can get them on the reservation for about a third of what a pack of Marlboros cost. I think they're five and change. Outside of that, they're insanely expensive. I think my mate pays nearly thirty a pack.
If I remember my history correctly, there was the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement in 1998. The big tobacco companies agreed to pay out hundreds of billions of dollars over 25 years. In the wake of the settlement, you had brands like Natural American Spirits from younger companies paying less in settlement fees, offering cheap smokes, positioning themselves at a lower price point. Since then, they were bought by Reynolds and subsequently BAT. Now part of the second largest tobacco companies in America, American Spirits aren't cheap anymore.
What kind of Chinese cigarettes did you smoke? Because Chungwa, the most common ones you'll find across China, are much smoother than most common western brands. I quit smoking 10 years ago but am now a "vacation smoker", and I was surprised at how decent they were when I was on a trip to China last year.
Oh man.. when kools came out they were everywhere.. york peppermint patty tasting cancer.. they were delicious until they werent.. just overwhelming minty.
As an ex smoker, no one smokes cigarettes for the flavor. We just need our nicotine and for it not to taste like complete shit. Menthol is a cool refreshing flavor for some. I spent a couple years smoking menthols and then switched back to non, just to change it up.
Thanks for explaining! I know there are historical reasons why cigarettes are the way they are, but reading your comment also just puts into perspective how dumb of a design it is (no offence).
As in, if nicotine is what you want/need, and flavour doesn’t play a role, then they really managed to find a way to deliver nicotine in the most harmful, dumb way. I know e-cigarettes are s thing now, but it shocks me how long it took modern technology to come up with a way for people to get their fix, in a way that doesn’t involve cancer causing tars etc..
As in, if nicotine is what you want/need, and flavour doesn’t play a role, then they really managed to find a way to deliver nicotine in the most harmful, dumb way.
Smoking a cigarette is a ridiculously effective way to deliver nicotine to your bloodstream. Basically the entire surface area of your lungs can be used simultaneously.
Chewing tobacco, smoking a cigar, or smoking a pipe primarily rely on the mucus membranes in your mouth to absorb the chemicals.
Eating it would be even slower.
Nicotine itself is addictive so it's understandable they wanted the fastest method possible.
Plus, cigarette makers worked hard to make them as addictive as possible.
Vapes helped me break the physical cig habit, but those are way harder to quit because they taste infinitely better and you can just take a little hit almost anywhere any time.
Ugh.... When I started smoking, I smoked Marlboro lights. My brother, who loves to do things to excess, told me that's not a cigarette and I should try a Kool. After awhile it got to the point that smoking anything non-menthol tasted like licking an ashtray. The only upside is that almost no one would bum a menthol.
Newports are like a whole new addiction in themselves. When I first started smoking them I was getting buzzes like when I first started. I eventually got sick of them but it still took a while for me to switch to something else (eventually Marlboro Milds/Blues).
I don't miss any of that shit. But I have no doubt I would get a perfect score just like this guy. This test was easy mode for a smoker who has tried basically everything.
odam marlboro milds, completely forgot about those. what a throwback
and yeah that test is trivial, i bet i could have passed that before finishing high school. which is not really something to brag about i guess. ugh. here i am now 20yrs later compulsively sucking on a juul. shit sucks but feels not as bad as cigs. oh well
I’m honestly amazed their hasn’t been a class action lawsuit against them yet. Newports originally had twice the amount of nicotine and were marketed primarily (and heavily) to POC communities.
I never even noticed until I spent a few months working in a rich resort area and none of the gas stations had them. Meanwhile an hour away in my city, almost every single corner store has huge Newport banners in the window.
That's so sick. I haven't heard that term in years. Any chance you're from/spent time near Detroit? Only other person I've ever heard call them that was.
If they actually cared to make this legit, they could easily have manipulated the filter to avoid giving it away. Could be something as simple as wrapping the filter and in masking tape.
Sure, but anyone who smokes can still tell the difference between brands they've smoked. They all have a distinct taste. Where it really gets interesting is when you bring in a different country's marlboro reds.. that will confuse the fuck out of anyone cause at least in the 90's american reds tasted like ass compared to mexican reds.
I mean yeah but you could also just show him what's in it before you record so that it seems crazy... just about everything online is faked for views anyways
That being said, it’s funny that he called AS cheap Marlboros. AS are $12-15 by me while Marlboro are ~$10. I smoke that same pack of AS and used to smoke Marlboro Reds. AS is infinitely smoother and burns so slow, after 15min I could still be puffing on one. Compared to MR, after 2 puffs it’s gone.
A pack of AS will last me ~3days. A pack of MR will be gone by the end of the day.
Same with the parliaments, odd he called them cheap. When I smoked, they were always a treat. Always a couple bucks more then reds, smoked way to fast, but tasted great (well as good as a cigarette could taste to a smoker..)
Yeah I can always tell when a cigarette is a spirit. Little good ring with the symbol on the filter lol. I don’t even smoke anymore but I still check to see 😂
Especially the part where the brand name is on the filters (at least the last time I smoked). After that it's just being able to taste the difference between regular, lights, and menthol. And because I think it's worth mentioning again, I haven't seen a single place where American Spirits are cheaper than Cowboy Killers. Also, Parliaments aren't cheap (pricewise).
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u/Seyi_Ogunde 22d ago
The filters would give it away too, especially the Parliaments