Leonida Profile
Debonaire is the cigarette for the person who wants the packet to communicate something before they light it. The packaging is clean and expensive-looking. The advertising imagery predates current health disclosure requirements, which is intentional: nobody looks elegant on a contemporary cigarette advertisement and Debonaire knows this.
The brand occupies the shelf position above Redwood in every store that carries both. Redwood is the volume brand. Debonaire is the brand for the person who wants the cigarette to communicate something about them. Whether cigarettes can communicate anything that a person would want communicated is a question Debonaire has declined to engage with.
In Vice City, Debonaire branding appears on the vintage billboard inventory, the kind of weathered poster that has been on a wall since before the current building was built. These legacy placements are maintained rather than replaced. The weathering adds to the nostalgic aesthetic rather than undermining it.