National smoking day ... WTF?
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 
I'm confused. On Sunday, courtesy of Peter Thurgood on another thread, I learned that National Cigar Smoking Day is today, January 27. Peter had received an email from TomTom cigar shop in Belgravia, just around the corner from Boisdale. It read:
27th January National Cigar Smoking Day! You are warmly invited to relax with our single original coffee and a 5% discounted cigar on that day. Our shop is open from 10am to 6pm - please come in when you feel like smoking.
Researching this post I discovered that the "The second annual National Cigar Smoking Day will take place on January 14th 2010. The main event will be a luxurious 3 course meal at one of the best restaurants in London, Boisdale".
January 14? January 27? What's going on?
Yesterday I popped into TomTom to see the owner Tom Assheton. Tom is an old friend of Forest who comes to some of our events. He explained that they had heard about National Cigar Smoking Day and so they issued their invitation on the back of it.
Unfortunately, there seems to have been some confusion. January 27 was the date of the first National Cigar Smoking Day - in 2009 - which was linked to National Smoking Day, World Smoking Day and European Smoking Day, which were all on the same date. (Essentially, they were variations of the same publicity stunt.)
Not that it matters. As things stand no-one's really interested - although I did do a ten-minute interview for City Talk, the Liverpool radio station, late last night which was prompted by TomTom's email.
The problem - and this is putting it mildly - is that there are too many people running around, doing their own thing. We're not communicating (even though we all know one another), which is crazy.
Last year, if I'm honest, I was sceptical about the idea of a National Smoking Day. I thought it might even be counter-productive. Now I'm beginning to think it's not such a bad idea, but if it's going to get off the ground in any meaningful sense there has to be proper coordination between interested parties, including commercial interests such as TomTom and Boisdale.
I know who is behind the original idea. He's a top bloke with a good track record so I'll have a chat and see what can be done. No promises (I'm still sceptical). But watch this space.
Meanwhile, if you like cigars and coffee (or coffee and no cigar), I strongly recommend that you visit TomTom today or any other day. Ask for Tom or Lidia and mention my name. (Note: the coffee shop is a very short stroll from the cigar shop.)
Above: Tom Assheton of TomTom with his assistant Lidia
Reader Comments (4)
A National Smoking Day is a great idea, but will we ever get enough people who smoke, involved enough to make it a success?
Remember that advert that used to be on TV, where a massive crowd all congregated at one of London's main railway stations, and they all did some sort of dance (I believe). I am not sure what the ad was for, or if the crowd were in fact real or just a rent-a-crowd, but the idea was great, and it is something along those lines that I would like to see happen on the proposed National Smoking Day.
Do you think it will ever happen?
The ad was for a mobile company and members of the public were encouraged to join the professional dancers. It could happen with smokers via the group that Simon highlighted some time ago which organises 'flash smoking' (I can't remember any more details).
In my opinion the only way you'd get the great unwashed out en masse for any purpose, is to ask them to appear nude at 4o'clock in the morning on some beach or common.
Because there was never any problem, when that Photographer (cant remember who or why), asked if people would take part in his experiment and thousands of 'bodies' turned up, the majority of which would have been far better off being kept covered up.
Nice 'assistant', anyway !