Cigarette Pack-Shaped Books Get British American Tobacco Steamed

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Cigarette pack-shaped books. (Photo from TankBooks.com)Capitalizing on the public's familiarity with cigarette brands, a publisher and design company in the United Kingdom has released a set of literary classics designed to look like cigarette packs. The company timed the appearance of the books, called "Tales to Take Your Breath Away," to coincide with a new ban on smoking in workplaces and public venues in the UK. The co-founder and creative director of Tank, the agency that produced the books, claims the cigarette-pack design has "introduced reading to people who don't take in much literature." The company's Web page about the books justifies the design by saying, "As one habit dies hard, another takes hold. ... Cigarette packs are iconic objects, familiar, tried and tested, and over time TankBooks will become iconic objects in their own right." British American Tobacco, however, claims that the book containing the Hemingway classics "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and "The Undefeated" too closely resembles a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes. BAT believes the association could threaten the health of its brand.