General Tobacco has recently learned the net worth of having a CEO who is also the company's chief attorney. The company recently launched a new line small cigars called WRANGLERS that can generally be sold for less than $2 for a pack of 20 that look nearly identical to cigarettes except for the tobacco leaf surrounding them rather than cigarette paper.

The legal fact of the matter is that if a item can be legally called a cigar rather than a cigarette, then there are many taxes that don't need to be paid. It is all of those state and federal taxes that boost the price of many cigarettes up to around $5 or more a pack in many parts of the country, although a few very low priced cigarette brands exist, but mainly sold by Native American confederations or businesses. One such cigarette, Chiefs, is sold by an on-line business run by an Indiana Native American for only $1.49 a pack. It might rate as the cheapest cigarette brand sold in the United States.

But in the case of General Tobacco, they have a popular line of low priced smokes that sold in most states such as GT ONE. But with the tax savings of marketing a line of small cigars that look nearly identical to cigarettes, WRANGLERS give General Tobacco a whole new low priced market to aim for. General Tobacco's recent press conference statement by CEO and Chief Counsel J. Ronald Denman cited the economy as a major reason to launch the new WRANGLER brand.

Legally, the North Carolina company has developed a product that is just cigar-like enough to be called a cigar legally. And that allows for the huge price cut advantage compared to other cigarettes called 100's. WRANGLERS are available as full flavor, lights or menthols just like cigarettes, which is rather uncharacteristic of cigars in general.

If anything, you have to give credit to General Tobacco to develop a legal way to offer a very low priced smoke. On the other hand, there are no doubt some in Washington and health community circles a little concerned when new products like comes on the market making smoking so cheap that it only encourages more of it. And whether WRANGLERS become a marketplace success is also a big question. Are they too much like a cigar to lure cigarette fans or not? Will smokers like their taste?

But General Tobacco's biggest marketing advantage might just be having a lawyer as their CEO. With the tobacco industry under so much legal assault these days, and with the legal line between cigars and cigarettes offering a huge tax advantage, General Tobacco might just have one leg on their competition right now. WRANGLERS might just be a brilliant bit of recession-priced marketing.