Care for a smoke?

June 5, 2024 8:21 AM

ZIGSAM - The Austrian Cigarette Collection is in fact a database of 35,290 cigarette packs from around the world. You can search by country or by brand in glorious Web 1.0 style.
posted by gwint (8 comments total)

Ah, the flavour of my teenage years.
posted by Kitteh at 8:23 AM on June 5 [1 favorite]

Oh god, I can still feel my lungs collapsing with trying to get anything out of this one (ah, edited to add, since the link doesn't work like I expected it to: it showed a rumpled old pack of Carlton 120s). The best part of quitting smoking is not having anyone ask me, why the hell are you smoking THOSE anymore!
posted by mittens at 9:28 AM on June 5 [1 favorite]

so someone really came up with horse shit cigarettes?
posted by pyramid termite at 10:41 AM on June 5 [1 favorite]

Impressive country coverage! A friend introduced me to Supermatch by saying they “taste like smoked owl meat.”
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 1:10 PM on June 5

Okay, maybe I am not looking in the right place on the site--which IS marvelous, btw--but does anyone else remember buying Sobranie black & gold ciggies and sometimes the rainbow coloured ones?*

*wow, the tobacconist in my hometown clearly did not card as I was smoking these at 16/17
posted by Kitteh at 1:56 PM on June 5

Yeh, mid ʻ60ʻs my bud & I discovered a tobacco specialty shop in downtown Paterson, NJ. Spent many afternoons there hanging with the proprietor, who seemed to like joining in our high schoolish repartee. Bought and collected cigarette brands we had never imagined existed -- Helmar, Murad, Sweet Caporal, English Ovals, Picayune, Players.... Smoked each, until, riding back to our suburban homes in the back of a crowded bus , we lit up some Moscovskye ones, which came rolled long with tobacco packed only on one end. Their smoke smelled way different, way strong. We both got sick on the nicotine overdose and bus diesel fumes. Sorry to say, I puked.

Later on in college, I made a montage of some of the showier packs using a corkboard and push pins. Hung it in my dorm room. And truly, it is a wonderful thing to see those old brands again in this collection.
posted by Droll Lord at 3:50 PM on June 5 [2 favorites]

I used to smoke LD. Absolutely terrible, but it was 8 bucks for a pack of 20 and I needed my fix. It was weird seeing ads for them on this site! Cigarettes don't have any kind of branding or advertising here. I literally asked the guy at the gas station what the cheapest brand was, and then I smoked that brand for years. Their awfulness probably made it easier to quit.
posted by signsofrain at 7:32 PM on June 5

Incredible. Thanks!

(My own brand, back in the Day)
posted by Rash at 10:23 AM on June 6