If young Asian kids reading The Financial Times see pictures of people smoking cigars, they will rush out to buy some Cohiba Behikes and smoke them and become addicted.
This must be the reason why last weekend’s Asian edition of the papers was so tastelessly defaced.
Let me explain:
Readers outside Asia reading FTWEEKEND of Saturday July 11/Sunday July 12 2009 would see this:
But in Asia, this is what they saw – Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cigar pixelated out:
On page 3 is another “censored” picture, that of Schwarzenegger with the mayor and police chief of Los Angeles.
What happened to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s stogie?
But oops they forgot to pixelate Schwarzenegger’s cigar from the ashtray!