Plains packaging
Young Africans are lighting up at an alarming rate
IN 2002 British American Tobacco (BAT), a big cigarette manufacturer, shuttled a temporary cinema around six Nigerian cities in what it called the “Rothmans Experience It Cinema Tour”. The company screened “Ocean’s Eleven”, “The Matrix” and other blockbusters for crowds of Nigerians, excited by the foreign concepts of high quality sound and a wide screen. To those who came to watch Brad Pitt gobble hamburgers and Keanu Reaves swallow red pills, BAT gave free packs of Rothmans cigarettes.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Plains packaging”
From the July 23rd 2016 edition
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