quality cigarsQuality cigars are marketed via advertisements, product placement in movies and other media, sporting events, cigar-friendly magazines such as Cigar Aficionado, and cigar dinners. Advertisements often include depictions of affluence, sexual imagery, and explicit or implied celebrity endorsement.
In the U.S., quality cigars are exempt from many of the marketing regulations that govern cigarettes. For example, the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act of 1970 exempted quality cigars from its advertising ban, and quality cigars ads, unlike cigarette ads, need not mention health risks. Quality cigars are taxed far less than cigarettes, so much so that in many U.S. states, a pack of little quality cigars costs less than half as much as a pack of cigarettes. It is illegal for minors to purchase quality cigars and other tobacco products in the U.S., but laws are unevenly enforced: a 2000 study found that three-quarters of Internet cigar marketing sites allowed minors to purchase quality cigars.
Nearly all modern cigar makers are members of long-established cigar families, or purport to be. The art and skill of hand-making premium quality cigars has been passed from generation to generation; families are often shown in many cigar advertisements and packaging.
The oldest family-owned premium cigar company in the USA is the J.C. Newman Cigar Company, a four-generation family with headquarters in Tampa's Ybor City district, which has been making their Cuesta-Rey quality cigars since 1895. Other brands include La Unica, Diamond Crown and Rigoletto. Perhaps the best-known cigar family in the world is the Arturo Fuente family. Now led by father and son Carlos Fuente, Sr. and Jr., the Fuente family has been rolling their Arturo Fuente and Montesino cigar brands since 1916. The release of the Fuente Fuente OpusX in 1995 heralded the first quality wrapper grown in the Dominican Republic. The oldest Dominican Republic cigar maker is the León family, who have been making their León Jimenes and La Aurora quality cigars on the island since 1905.