In industrial America, the “stogie” became an emblem of masculine success, an appendage of political bosses and driving businessmen, or an invitation to adulthood in the private rooms of elites. Although some cigars are produced in the US and Central America, the post-Castro Cuba embargo devastated sales and yet taunted America for decades. In the 1990s, however, new generations revived the cigar as a marker of success and exclusivity in smoking clubs chronicled in celebrity magazines like Cigar Aficionado. Sales rose 50 percent between 1993 and 1997. In 1999 the Federal Trade Commission, concerned by smokers who considered cigars a safer alternative to cigarettes, requested mandatory health warnings.