Comments on: Upsidedown Cigarette

Question: Upsidedown Cigarette

DrtyBlvd — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:53:35 -0800

Has Anyone ever opened a packet of cigarettes and found one of them upside down?

I just have, and it's freaked me out more than a little.

I've seen the "lucky" turn-it-upside-down thread but in 30 years of smoking 20 a day I have never opened a pack to find one already - and not just *any* one - upside down, but the front middle one at that!

I've seen various clips of the mass of cigarettes 'being procesed' conveyor-belt wise, and can understand an inversion happening - in a way I'm almost as surprised it doesn't happen more often - but once in what must be, in excess of, c12k packets that's a bit of a surprise wouldn't you agree?

So am I alone or has this happened to you too?

By: Methylviolet

Methylviolet — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:08:31 -0800

I smoked for almost twenty years, and no -- never. Not once.

By: tristeza

tristeza — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:11:23 -0800

Nope!

By: lekvar

lekvar — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:19:27 -0800

Never. I'm guessing you got a special present from the hard-working men and women on the assembly line.

Or maybe the assembly robot glitched up.

But I'm guessing it was people.

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:24:54 -0800

Never seen it.

I vote Project Mayhem. Bin the pack.

By: wreckingball

wreckingball — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:31:37 -0800

no, but once a pack of newports just sort of materialized on the bench where i was sitting with nobody around to have put it there, that i could see.

By: nj_subgenius

nj_subgenius — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:34:59 -0800

No and I smoke lots.
But I had a curry once and found a cockroach in it.

By: indienial

indienial — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:42:22 -0800

No, but I did have a pack with one cigarette completely missing its filter and branding/logo (normally printed above the filter).

I'd say you got yourself a lucky cigarette. Smoke it, then buy a lotto ticket.

By: Koko

Koko — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:54:44 -0800

I found a bag of weed on the ground on my birthday once. But no upside down cigarette.

By: DrtyBlvd

DrtyBlvd — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:58:58 -0800

Makes me wish it was purple or different in some way - anything, something... but nope.

However, I can't bring myself to smoke any of the pack!

Opened the rest of the carton to check, but nope, just that one pack.

Think I'd rather have the distinction of picking the winning lottery numbers...

By: trip and a half

trip and a half — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:00:21 -0800

33 years of smoking and never saw that. Although I once bought a pack of defective Export As where the glued had failed somehow, and they would split down the seam after you lit up.

By: matty

matty — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:15:01 -0800

If you haven't already, DON'T SMOKE THAT CIG!! Human hands have been a 'playin.

By: sperose

sperose — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:37:47 -0800

Could it possibly be some sort of strange promotion or something? What was the company?

By: mygothlaundry

mygothlaundry — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:39:08 -0800

Nope. I always turn the first one upside down, have since I was a wee barely smoking lass, but I never found one like that. I would probably smoke it. But I'm dumb that way. Don't listen to me.

I found weed once and it was fine. Now I bought weed from a stranger that lead to a night of existential terror and yeah, that is PCP. I know this because when it happened the second time I was with people who recognized it.

By: crabintheocean

crabintheocean — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:48:10 -0800

No.

By: buxtonbluecat

buxtonbluecat — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:53:30 -0800

Never seen it. 13 years of 2-3 packs a day.

By: chiababe

chiababe — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 19:06:54 -0800

Non-smoker here. Can someone explain why this is a big deal? I'm genuinely curious and feel like I'm missing something here.

By: DrtyBlvd

DrtyBlvd — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 19:11:49 -0800

"Could it possibly be some sort of strange promotion or something? What was the company?
posted by sperose"

Marlboro Red - nothing any different to be seen on pack at all..

By: Duncan

Duncan — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 19:17:59 -0800

Never. 18 years... I will be on the lookout.

By: nebulawindphone

nebulawindphone — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 19:24:42 -0800

Can someone explain why this is a big deal?

There's a superstition that involves flipping a cigarette upside down in each pack you smoke. The flipped cigarette is supposed to be lucky, and you save it to smoke when you need good luck, or just smoke it last out of the pack.

Buying a pack of cigarettes with one already flipped is like buying a pack with a four-leaf-clover inside.

By: paulsc

paulsc — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:28:39 -0800

One in a domestic pack of Kents about 10 years ago, one, many, many years ago, in a 50 can of Balkan Sobranies. It was more common years ago with smaller volume makers. Today, with the machinery and visual inspection systems involved in consumer goods packaging, even tobacco, you've got yourself an Oddity.

By: efalk

efalk — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:34:43 -0800

yes, years ago in arizona, would have been a pack of marlboros. my roommate was the kind of person that was superstitous about flipping one of the cigarettes from a pack. When i showed it to him, he demanded that i go buy a lottery ticket. I didn't win the lottery, but who knows.

By: parmanparman

parmanparman — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:41:58 -0800

Perhaps, likes George Soros, someone at RJR is culture jamming

By: porpoise

porpoise — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 21:00:44 -0800

Try to flog it on ebay (although I doubt anyone would believe you)?

I can't remember, but do American smokes come with a tax sticker/thinger on the pack to say that taxes were paid (or is there just a stamp-looking stamp, it's been years)? The rip-cord on Canadian smokes is a different colour for each province suggesting that either cigarette packs are shrink-wrapped differently depending on markets or the local distributor packages bulk cigs.

If there is a tagged ripcord, does it look identical to a legit ripcord? Thinking along the lines of counterfeit cigarettes.

I'm assuming that this is a flip-top rather than a soft-pack... I, too, would be wary about smoking anything from the pack.

On the off-chance, and if you don't want to smoke 'em, take them apart. Maybe you did find a surprise prize in the form of heroin or cocaine or something.

By: GatorDavid

GatorDavid — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 21:28:36 -0800

Never ever never, and I smoked for years.

I'd be *very* careful ... Avoid taking the same route home from work every day. Don't park in the same place for a few days. Sprinkle some talcum powder in front of your door.

Beware the bald man.

By: middleclasstool

middleclasstool — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 21:54:18 -0800

13 years before I quit. Not once.

Go jogging. Only way to kill the bad gris-gris.

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 22:05:16 -0800

I've found broken/shredded cigarettes, but not upside down. That's in 38 years of smoking, 3 continents and a variety of countries (and no clue where I have or haven't bought smokes, except to say, Canada isn't amongst them, as I hated the taste of Canadian cigarettes).

I did find weed on the ground one day. Middle of a sidewalk in the middle of downtown Flint, Michigan. I was a poor college student at the time. Woot!

By: DrtyBlvd

DrtyBlvd — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 01:02:46 -0800

Further to questions raised;

It was one pack in a genuine carton of 200; bought from a reputable store, and with no distinguishing marks of any kind not expected.

"Buying a pack of cigarettes with one already flipped is like buying a pack with a four-leaf-clover inside" - life has a strange sense of humour, huh. Slightly warped and more than a little twisted! (It's a sign I'm telling you, a sign!)

"...you've got yourself an Oddity" - For sure, but "(although I doubt anyone would believe you)?" to what end?

I am a "bald [man]" and although I won't be changing 99.9% of my habits, it certainly does ratchet ones' paranoia up a notch or two... especially in light of "the machinery and visual inspection systems involved in consumer goods packaging, even tobacco"

Maybe I'll get the pack acrylicised and use it as a paperweight / door stopper :)

Can't get Alanis Morisettes' song line out of my head... "Isn't it ironic..."

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 04:18:36 -0800

Not cig related but I worked in a brewery for four summers and every now and then we would put a bundle of labels in the labeller upside down. Everyone on the production line would try and run them through before QC noticed.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 04:28:39 -0800

If you do decide to smoke it, make sure you turn it around first. Filters don't light easily but they taste awful when they do.

By: genghis

genghis — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 07:47:16 -0800

In what sense is it ironic, exactly?

By: Four Flavors

Four Flavors — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 09:46:19 -0800

I once had a Molly Hatchet CD returned to the music store where I worked with "Wille Nelson- Stardust" recorded on it. I had sold it ot he guy ealier, and it was a real, from-the-factory, printed-on-the-disc pre-recorded CD, with the completely wrong album on it.

So, yes, factories do make mistakes.

By: UncleHornHead

UncleHornHead — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 10:02:38 -0800

flab- Agreed. Filters taste like a soiled potatoe.

h/t DQ

By: sonofslim

sonofslim — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 10:42:23 -0800

Non-smoker here. Can someone explain why this is a big deal?

Whether or not it's lucky, this is like buying a 6-pack of Coke and later realizing one of them is a can of Sprite. Weird? Yeah. Plausible? Sure. Smokable? That's the question on the line.

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 12:50:11 -0800

Yes, but with a heavy caveat. I'm not a cigarette smoker, really, just a dabbler. But I had a friend who taught in China and came back with cartons for everyone of some state brand of smokes (he bought them for, like, $3 a piece or something).
There were a couple packs each carton that had upside down cigarettes, but I assume that they were all hand packed, most likely by prisoners. They also tasted like a blends of dryer lint and burning dog fur, and were the worst cigarettes I've ever had.
But yeah, with American smokes, I think you got lucky.