Gauloises Cigarettes, The French Icon

Gauloises cigarettes (pronounced -go.lwaz) is one of the strong non-filter cigarette brands from French that first launched in 1910.

Nowadays Gauloises cigarettes produced by Imperial Tobacco after acquisition by Altadis from SEITA (French State-owned Tobacco Company) in January 2008.

Gauloises Cigarettes

In Germany, the Gauloises cigarettes  produced and sold by Reemtsma. This traditional cigarette were short, non-filter, the ring gauge rather large, made uses dark tobacco from Syria and Turkey that produced strong and distinctive aroma.

For most of Gouloises and Gitanes smokers, both brands are part of the French identity or icon.

In 1950s the factory launched the filtered version of Gauloises cigarettes, “Gauloise Disque Bleu”, and then the light one in 1984.

The light version is typically American tobacco with filter, beside that the original non-filter Gauloises Caporal discontinued and replaced with unfiltered Gauloises Brunes that less strong than the original one.

This new version Gauloises cigarettes contains low tar and nicotine levels, following the European Tobacco regulation, but the tobacco remain dark and strong-tasting.

At the end of 2017 the company closed the manufacturing plant Puy-de-Dôme in Riom, and in 2018 they open the new manufacturing plant in Poland.

During that period of time that is a difficult situation facing the company. In July 2016, the French government considered a ban on Gauloises and Gitanes Cigarette brands because according to the government they were deemed “too stylish and cool.”

Gauloises Cigarettes Present

Not only those two brands, the French government also banned Marlboro Gold, Vogue, Lucky Strike and Fortuna brands.

The ban of Gauloises cigarettes is as a result of a new public health law based on a European directive that says the tobacco product “must not include any element that contributes to the promotion of tobacco of give an erroneous impression of certain characteristics.”

Gauloises in French meaning ‘Gaul women’; it is refer to the Iron Age civilization which dominated much of Western Europe, including modern day French.

The logo is a Gaul Military helmet, which reinforced its sense of national honors. The fact that many of French Resistance soldier smoke Gauloises further cemented its associations with patriotism.

As the slogan “Liberte toujours” (Liberty forever).

The brand also linked to high-status and inspirational figures representing the worlds or art – Pablo Picasso, the elite intellectual – Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Jean Baudrillard, musicians like French pianist and composer Maurice Ravel, The Doors singer Jim Morrison, The Beatles guitarist and composer John Lennon, and John Frusciante a former guitarist of The Red Hot Chili Peppers; they smoke Gauloises.  

So far Gauloises cigarettes held minuscule market share outside French and Francophone Africa.

Its distinctive aroma was unique, but not most of people like it.

Under the new owner, Altadis (Spanish tobacco company, Tabacalera), the new management effort to push this cigarettes to compete in the international market.

Actually Gauloises cigarettes (unfiltered cigarette) is unique and giving new experience for non-French smoker, sometimes it called as strange taste, short burn.

But again, its seems to be a French icon of cigarette. Even now it produces in Poland and Germany.

Pics: Brands/Cigarety.