RJ Reynolds Mocks Brooklyn Hipsters

And apparently the hipsters aren't hip to the joke -- they're handing over their money as fast as they can to the company that's mocking and killing them.

Bodega owners across Williamsburg and Greenpoint say that they’re selling out of the gimmicky smokes as soon as they’re stocked.

People who once would rather fight than switch are grabbing the pack with their neighborhood’s name.

“I smoke Marlboro, but whenever I see the Williamsburg [Camels] I buy it,” said Abdo Hussein, a worker at God Bless Deli in Greenpoint. “I live in the neighborhood, so it’s cool to have. We’re selling out of them quick.”

[...]

Bodega workers on Bedford and Manhattan avenues said that they’re running out of the neighborhood pack the same day that they’re dropped off.

Heck, one woman even walks into the N 7 Market on Bedford Avenue and N. Seventh Street every single day to see if any Williamsburg packs arrived, a cashier said. When the packs are around, she buys every single one.

[...]

“The pack is kinda stupid, but they [R.J. Reynolds] definitely know how to sell smokes,” said neighborhood resident Tyler Pearson, who coughed up $10.79 for a pack.

The text on the back of the pack reads: Some call it the most famous hipster neighborhood. But it's not about hip. IT'S ABOUT BREAKING FREE. It's about last call, a sloppy kiss goodbye and a solo saunter to a rock show in an abandoned building. It's where a tree grows. It's Camel in the Williamsburg corner of Brooklyn.

It's about breaking free, all right. There's no freedom like the freedom of cigarette addiction. And what's more liberating than cancer?

[Brooklyn Paper]