Mr. BitternessMar 9
My local hardware store just installed a vending machine out front of it, in case you need things when they're closed.
I love it.
Show threadjavensbukanMar 9

@wdormann Okay but like this is genius. 🧠 💰

I love that they threw in some snacks and...a pack of cigarettes?! 😂

Show threadMr. Bitterness
@javensbukan
Haha. They're candy cigarettes. 😂
Mar 9 at 11:26pmWeb
Show threadjavensbukanMar 9
@wdormann Ah okay 😜 I was like dang, must be one hell of a repair job.
Show threadHo Ho Ho Like The SlurMar 9

@wdormann @javensbukan hold up... Candy cigarettes still exist? Ones that could reasonably be mistaken for real cigarettes??

As a child I caught the tail end of them in australia, they were just barely identifiable.

Show threadjavensbukanMar 9

@coolandnormal @wdormann We used to have "Popeye" branded ones here but they were re-labelled as "Candy Sticks".

https://candynow.ca/products/popeye-candy-sticks-48ct

Popeye Candy Sticks 48ct

Show threadHo Ho Ho Like The SlurMar 10

@javensbukan @wdormann we had FAGS (a white stick with a red tip), which became FADS (no red tip). Evolution below.

They were clearly meant to be cigarettes, "fags" was one of the most common words for cigarettes in australia at the time. As far as I recall they never had a packet that looked convincingly like a cigarette packet.

Show threadM.S. Bellows, Jr.Mar 10
@coolandnormal @javensbukan @wdormann It would be surreal to revisit my childhood and see all the incredibly inappropriate things we didn't blink at then.
Show threadmarilynMar 10
@coolandnormal @javensbukan @wdormann
As a kid, I especially liked the ones that you could blow through to create a cloud of powdered sugar "smoke" - but those became impossible to find for some reason
Show threadWesDymMar 10
@coolandnormal My understanding is that 'fag' is still a common street-level term for cigs in many Commonwealth countries, from the term's older meaning of 'burning twig'. It's been used in British TV as recently as just a decade or so, and not ironically, just how the characters talk. (Father Brown said it, for example.) It's fallen out of favour because it's also been used as an anti-gay slur, but my own view is that offense follows from intent, not usage by itself.
Show threadWesDymMar 10
@javensbukan Licensing deal ran out. Happens all the time.
Show threadMr. BitternessMar 10
@coolandnormal @javensbukan
We don't really care about things here in the states. 😂
Show threadHo Ho Ho Like The SlurMar 10
@wdormann @javensbukan I would love to know what the evolution of that was. Whether they were never regulated in the first place. Or (like the supplement industry) regulation used to be considered an important right of every american until one rich guy in the 80s.
Show threadWesDymMar 10

@coolandnormal I'm Mur'can, and I'm honestly not sure what either of you mean.

Anti-smoking movements in the US reduced the popularity of candy cigs and also led to their design change, in an effort to discourage kids from smoking. But they were 'cool' for kids of half a century ago and earlier, when adult smoking was much more widespread and accepted.

Show threadBob K Mertz Mar 10

@coolandnormal
There's no chance of someone actually mistaking the sticks themselves as a real cigarette. The boxes keep the same design but no longer have the "cigarettes" label and they are most often sold as nostalgia items for those of us born in the 80s and earlier.

My niece and nephew had absolutely no clue what they were and made no connection... You have to know what they were to make the connection.

NGL though... Still one of my favorites candies

EDIT: Speaking as a US resident

@wdormann @javensbukan

Show threadWesDymMar 10
@bobkmertz They used to more closely resemble real cigs, but changed because of a movement to discourage kids from taking up smoking.
Show threadPasswordsarehard4Mar 10
@wesdym @bobkmertz right around when Joe Camel pulled a “my dad”. Went out for smokes and never came back.
Show threadHo Ho Ho Like The SlurMar 10

@bobkmertz @wdormann @javensbukan I remember getting FADS at my 5th birthday (shout out ScienceWorks), immediately recognising them as cigarettes and all of us kids playing a game of smoking with them.

They were these ones and at 5yo we knew they were cigarette advertising (and loved it).

Show threadHo Ho Ho Like The SlurMar 10
@bobkmertz @wdormann @javensbukan for a few months after discovering FADS we were pretending everything was cigarettes. We walked around with top pockets full of broken spaghetti pretending to smoke it at grown ups. It must had been wildly annoying, there were about eight of us little kids around that house.
Show threadBob K Mertz Mar 10
@coolandnormal
I'm talking about the ones that are in the vending machine that were ubiquitous in the US in the 80s and 90s. I never saw the FADS here then or now. The ones in the US were not really branded and if you got a box they had multiple packs in the box with different designs. A golf pencil looks more like a cigarette than the candy "cigarettes"
@wdormann @javensbukan
Show threadHo Ho Ho Like The SlurMar 10

@bobkmertz @wdormann @javensbukan I would be very surprised if children can't work out they're meant to be cigarettes.

Seems fanciful to imagine they look otherwise tbh.

Show threadBob K Mertz Mar 10
@coolandnormal
Please stop trying to manufacture outrage. With the state of the world I don't care to worry about how anything stick shaped could be used by a child's imagination to emulate something bad. This is just ridiculous.
@wdormann @javensbukan
Show threadWesDymMar 10
@coolandnormal Still around, yep. Along with many other things you might think are gone now, too. I'm occasionally surprised by stuff I remember from my youth but haven't seen in years popping up unexpectedly.
Show threadRealGene ☣️Mar 10
@wdormann @javensbukan
Yeah, I looked at the price and thought nah, those aren't real cigs…