I saw a tiny blurb in a local alternative weekly about these things called “Revos.” Never heard of them before. They’re like a weird combination of e-cigs and real cigarettes.

Revos, put out by RJ Reynolds, use a carbon tip to heat tobacco, rather than burning it, for inhalation. Apparently, they don’t put out as much secondhand smoke. Like this editorial from Massachusetts says: “And this would be beneficial how, exactly?”

The editorial points out — one benefit would be perhaps it wouldn’t stink up smokers’ hair and clothing so much. But, it won’t have any benefit to a smokers’ lungs. Just another sleazy tactic from RJ Reynolds, which I’m sure won’t exactly come out and say, “they’re safer than cigarettes,” but will employ sneaky marketing tricks to passively and vaguely suggest this.

It appears to be some kind of weird reverse marketing ploy. E-cigs are taking business away from tobacco (even though RJ Reynolds now owns Blu E-cigs), by putting out essentially a fake cigarette. So, now a cigarette company is returning the favour by putting out a fake e-cig. It’s like how Japanese and American animation keep stealing from one another.

I also hope Revos won’t be used as a way to try and get around smoking bans. I’ll be keeping an eye on RJ Reynolds and their new Revos.