Does anybody remember Phanstom Sweet Cigarettes? In the 70s, it was mainly for a Phantom cigarette, anybody? a boy to strut around with one of these ciggies in the mouth. Like Amitabh Bachchan and his half-chewed beedi in ‘Deewar’. They weren’t tobacco-stuffed cigarettes, of course. Just white candy sticks made of chalky sugar with a red tip that looked like the real thing. They were sickly sweet. But popular. As far as my pocket money could stretch, I was a Phantom cigarette addict. Not because of Mr. Bachchan’s swag, but because of all the masked and caped comic book superheroes back then – the Phantom was my favorite. Associating with the brand made me feel proud, indeed.

The Phantom, however, in all his jungle adventures by Lee Falk, never smoked. Nor did he drink. He wasn’t into sweets, too. But I thought it was cool to appear with a packet of Phantoms. And to offer them around as grownups did. By the time I learned that sugar candy was as harmful as, say, a cigarette, I had stopped reading Phantom comics and was smoking cigars. So it was strange that somebody tripping on nostalgia sent me a Children’s Day hamper last week that had among other goodies these Phantom Sweet Cigarettes. Why me, I don’t know. But I was really happy to find the Phantoms in the hamper. I thought they were banned. After a bitter battle in court between the candy confectioner and tobacco manufacturers. Apparently, the brand survived. And now Phantom Sweet Cigarettes are available online too!

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