Truth in Product Labels—This One Will Kill You

Proper labeling of promotional products is a big deal. While sourcing, the proper risk assessment of any product must include planned usage group as well as delivery destination. An example of this is that major consumer brands often create two SKUs of the exact same product: one shipping to California with a label designed to meet Prop 65 "clear and reasonable warning" requirements, the other for everywhere else. Makes absolute sense, right?

But, consider this: what if you not only properly labeled your product, but even went completely to the other extreme, and named it for the potential result of using it? If that doesn't give new meaning to "truth in advertising," I'm not sure what does. Introducing Death Cigarettes, perhaps the only consumer product ever, which, if used exactly as intended by the target user group, could cause death. And, more importantly given the subject matter at hand, is labeled to indicate that.

Entrepreneur BJ Cunningham founded the interestingly-named Enlightened Tobacco Company in 1991 and, until 1999, the cigarettes were sold only through mail order so as to avoid taxes. DEATH^TM Cigarettes were labeled as hazardous to your health by prominently displaying a skull and crossbones on its package, and made claims to have been the best-selling cigarettes in the UK for three years. For convenience, the product was offered in two varieties; DEATH^TM, and, if you wanted to go just a little slower, DEATH Light^TM. Cunningham's goal was to reimagine the tobacco industry and bring products straight to the consumer without the nasty burden of taxes. Unfortunately for him, both the courts and the tobacco industry disagreed. In addition, the company suffered a major setback when a 1994 F1 sponsorship resulted in a driver death and was eventually closed down by a copyright infringement suit filed by alcohol company Black Death. Today, BJ Cunningham makes his money on the speaker circuit, presenting business ideas based on the unique experience of this method of marketing.