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| MASSIVE MACANUDO '68 CAMPAIGN STARTS |
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Page 1 of 2  Plus: Is Swedish Match in play?Los Angeles, September 18 – One of the most massive launches of a new cigar ever undertaken will start today at Jungle Jim’s of Fairfield, Ohio and Liberty Smokes of Philadelphia as General Cigar rolls out the Macanudo 1968 National Tasting Tour. “We’ve scheduled 450 retail events nationwide,” noted Victoria McKee, General Cigar’s national director of public relations. “We’re going to give away 60,000 Macanudo 1968 cigars for consumer trial at retail.” The program is a blitz, covering more than 40 states in just about five weeks, with the final event scheduled for October 26 at the Belicoso Cafe in Wyandotte, Michigan. Forty members of General’s national sales team will be involved along with senior executives including General’s president, Daniel Nunez. McKee explained that at each event cigars will be available for sampling, but also “branded cigar cutters, shirts and party favors, and a chance to win a limited-edition Macanudo 1968 humidor.” One humidor will be allocated per store, even though the tasting event may run for several days at that location. Additional events will be held by individual stores that do not include a General Cigar staff presence, but cigars, snacks, gifts and prizes are being sent along. General will follow up with more exposure at several major consumer events in November, with another 11,000 cigars allocated for tasting. There’s also a special promotion on a three-cigar trial pack (only 25,000 are available, though), which is being advertised in cigar publications (including our own Cigar Gallery) and in male-oriented publications including Esquire, Golf Digest, Inc., Men’s Journal, Playboy, Yachting and others. The cigar itself marks the 40th anniversary of the acquisition of the Temple Hall factory in Jamaica by General Cigar in 1968. Along with the purchase came some cigar brand trademarks, including Temple Hall and a little-known brand called Macanudo. Re-blended and heavily promoted, it debuted in 1971 and shot to the top of the U.S. premium cigar charts almost immediately and it has been the best-selling premium brand in the U.S. ever since. It’s also noteworthy as the first Macanudo to be offered that did not use a Connecticut-grown wrapper; it features a Honduran San Agustin wrapper leaf instead. It’s easily the most powerful Macanudo yet conceived and it earned a grade of “A-: Excellent” in our tasting report last week. “This product has already generated a lot of buzz,” wrote McKee in an e-mail message earlier this week. “And there is much more to come.” Is Swedish Match the next tobacco company in play? While the Macanudo 1968 launch is on, so is lots of talk about whether Swedish Match – parent of General Cigar – could be the next tobacco company to be acquired by one of the large cigarette players. |
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Did you know?
“Cigar-making machines were introduced in the U.S. in the 1920s, but were banned in Cuba until 1937.
