I can't remember, but I think the photo was used in cigar magazine ads for Padilla cigars. You may remember seeing it yourself, and I hope whoever it was starts using it again. I received several emails requesting copies of the photo, and earlier last year I even tried getting a copy of the full-blown poster for a customer, but came up dry.

Speaking of great cigar posters, I remember one in particular at last year's RTDA show in Las Vegas for the new Alec Bradley MAXX cigars. It depicted a young man (shown in color) sitting on the floor smoking a MAXX cigar with a shaven head resting between the legs of a curvaceous young woman (shown in black & white) wearing a white bustier shot from the torso down, with her left hand resting on her naked thigh, while her right hand is stroking the man's head.

When I met with Alan Rubin (founder of Alec Bradley cigars) at his booth, I told him I just had to have one of those posters. "You and everybody else," he said with a grin.

Well, today I got a surprise in the mail. It was a copy of the poster printed on canvass stretched around a wooden framework, like a fine painting. I immediately emailed Alan to thank him, and in his reply he was pleased to report that "MAXX is kicking butt and we're getting calls from tobacconists and consumers from all over the country looking for the product."

All day long, people have been coming in to get a closer look of my MAXX poster as they pass by my office. You can see the MAXX poster for yourself by visiting the CigarAdvisor news photo gallery.

Until now, I haven't  been a collector of cigar culture, but this sure is a great place to start. At least the poster won't go up in smoke.

~ GK