Hell no! I don't subscribe to anything that promotes tasting chocolate in cigars. I particularly hate CA, which was responsible for the cigar boom and led to some very unpleasant times for real cigar smokers as opposed to noobs who wanted to look cool. There's a reason why I hate those fuggers.
Doc
Doc's posts are priceless !!
That cigar boom is the reason cigar prices hit double digits per stick, and in my opinion, created the "box phenomenon" where brands spend too much on the box/packaging/promotion and not enough on the cigar. My view is you market your cigar by putting your money into the cigar. (Not the box, not the magazine add.....Swag ???...errr maybe a little swag)
I read CA more for the things I will never buy than for their cigar opinions. And I remember Gina Gershon a few years back being some nice eye candy.
I personally saw an upgrade in RP ratings that appeared directly proportional to the amount of RP advertising, so I don't really view it as "informational", more of a lifestyle magazine. I read some of the others listed at my local B&M. They usually have better eye candy.
I don’t think there’s a correlation between scores and advertising. Even now just flipping through the pages of the current issue with Andy Garcia I see RP has a two-page spread and another single-page ad. Maybe even more. They also have one cigar rated in this same issue. It scored 87 points. In the same category, the two top-scoring cigars both got 92 points and neither of those brands advertise at all. That alone makes it hard to suspect corruption.