A Lucky Strike

A German looked incredulously at the assortment of popular-priced cigarettes in a store in Bonn last week. "Are these real Luckies?" he asked, pointing to the familiar white pack with the red bull's-eye. They were, and the price was only 24-c- for a pack of twelve, cheaper than some German brands. For years Germans had to pay as much as 6 marks ($1.50) for a pack of 20 imported U.S. cigarettes. Now, for the first time, Luckies were being sold at much lower prices because they were being made in Germany.

Germans first got a taste for U.S. cigarettes after World War II, when there was no domestic industry to speak of and a carton of "Amis" sold by a U.S. G.I. brought as much as $200 on the black market. Even after German cigarette makers got back in production, smokers still craved the Virginia blends, as opposed to the Oriental blends favored by domestic manufacturers. But because of the price, only the rich could afford imported U.S. cigarettes, grandly passed them around as a status symbol. The British-American Tobacco Co., which sells American Tobacco's Lucky Strike brand in Europe, was the first to go into local-plant production. But West Germans can look forward to other inexpensive U.S. brands. R. J. Reynolds (Camels), Liggett & Myers (Chesterfields) and P. Lorillard (Kents, Old Golds) are all smoking out ways to cash in on Germany's well-developed taste for Amis.

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