Help: those people handing out cigs at bars and insurance rates

[RunDownHouse]

I can't find a link or any info on this, so I turn to OOT for help.

I'm sure everyone has seen those people hanging around bars and clubs that hand out free lighters or cigarettes in exhange for you filling out a short survey or giving them your address or whatever. One of my coworkers is insisting that the companies gathering this info sell it to insurance companies so that they can hike your rates or keep an eye on you, or something.

I heard this rumor a while back, and later read an article/explanation of why it isn't true. I can't find it for the life of me now though. Has anybody else heard this rumor or know of any refutations?

[InchoateHand]

I can tell you its not true, since those free handouts are from cigarette companies.

[RunDownHouse]

We've told him that argument, and he still doesn't buy it. He argues that demand is so inelastic, the companies can do anything - including getting your info and selling it to an insurance company - and their bottom line won't be affected.

[JonPKibble]

[ QUOTE ]
I can't find a link or any info on this, so I turn to OOT for help.

I'm sure everyone has seen those people hanging around bars and clubs that hand out free lighters or cigarettes in exhange for you filling out a short survey or giving them your address or whatever. One of my coworkers is insisting that the companies gathering this info sell it to insurance companies so that they can hike your rates or keep an eye on you, or something.

I heard this rumor a while back, and later read an article/explanation of why it isn't true. I can't find it for the life of me now though. Has anybody else heard this rumor or know of any refutations?

[/ QUOTE ]

Easy solution, give them fake info.

[RunDownHouse]

Let me know if I need to go back and bold the appropriate part of the OP for you.

[The Goober]

[ QUOTE ]
Easy solution, give them fake info.

[/ QUOTE ]

Most of the ones I've seen have a little computer thingy that scans your driver's license.

[InchoateHand]

Someone else's personal experience:

The marketing group had a single client: Camel cigarettes. They’d approach various bars and ask them if they were interested in being paid to become “Camel bars.” Camel ads hung in bathrooms, pint glasses were placed upon Camel coasters, phone numbers were written down on Camel bar napkins. If you asked the bartender for a match you’d get a book stamped with Joe Camel’s phallic mug. And the final privilege the Camel money bought was the right to send its people into the bar each night to hand out free packs of Camel cigarettes to smokers.

This was my new job. For every pack of cigarettes I handed out I got one dollar. Even the slowest workers were able to rustle up or outright lie their way to fifteen packs per hour, which made the job a guaranteed $15 an hour. And those lucrative hours were perfect—hit the bars around eight and stay as long or as little as you like. I told my boyfriend to sign me up. I had never been paid so much. The bookstore paid $9.50 and it had taken me five years of employment to get it up from $7.50.

At the Union Square office I was given cartons of Camel cigarettes—menthols, lights, wides, and the various flavored sorts that come in tin boxes and have a phony art-deco aesthetic. In order to prove to the authorities that the smokers I gave freebies to were old enough to smoke (and to cull information for future marketing schemes), I was to digitally photograph the driver’s license of everyone who received my smoky gifts. The mammoth cameras were outdated and confusing to operate; they malfunctioned frequently, costing workers hours of pay since without the photos we had no proof we’d worked. I was given a big black bag to haul it all around in.

Also, this news article:

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-.../s_367632.html

[IndieMatty]

I have a friend(acquantance) who did this while looking for acting work in NYC. Not a bad gig. He just would annoy people at the bars and give out free smokes. When smoking was allowed in Bars in NYC, people would come up to him.

[InchoateHand]

Also this practice is WAY more widespread in the tobacco companies' biggest markets---the third world. I used to frequently get free cigarettes from scantily clad women in Indonesia, a country where a tiny percent of the population even has health insurance.

If you're talking about group life insurance (from your employer), then no, because the rates aren't based on an individual, but as your company as a whole... hence "group".