For those of you that haven’t seen the butt of a Parliament (I guess insert joke here), the paper that wraps the cigarette extends about 1/4" past the actual filter. Looking at it another way, the filter is indented 1/4" into the outer layer of paper, resulting in a cavity about the size and shape of a pencil eraser.
So, why is that done?
I can’t see any practical reason. I think I remember Vantage cigarettes having the same feature, so there has to be at least some explanation.
I think mostly so they could advertise it as a way they were different. IIRC, blather about their wonderful “recessed filters” used to figure in their advertising.
Coke scoop?
That’s the urban legend, anyways.
Nah, McDonald’s coffee stirrers worked far better.
I think the idea was that it kept your lips/tongue from directly touching the tar-soaked filter.
Vantage had/has the recessed filter, but adds a plastic insert to keep the paper from collapsing.
Parliament (my mother’s brand when she was smoking) made a big deal about their recessed filter back in the 60s. The idea was that it was harder to accidentally touch your tongue to the filter and get a taste of the filtering material, which I gather didn’t taste too good. At a time when there were dozens of cigarette brands vying for attention, this was a good selling point and also helped differentiate the brand.
The distance between the filter and the “end” of the cigarette cools the smoke. Although it’s difficult to see how this can occur when it’s only 1/4 inch.
I find this when I smoke my pipe. A nice, easy, relaxed draw pulls the smoke through the pipe stem, cooling it and allowing me to taste the smoke (which is why I smoke a pipe; I don’t inhale, I just enjoy the flavours of the blend). If I puff like a steam locomotive, the smoke becomes hot and “biting” because it hasn’t had a chance to cool. It’s unpleasant, so I let the stem of my pipe do its thing while I puff slowly, and the stem distance cools the smoke.
When I smoked cigarettes and studied Russian, I learned about papirosi, which were Russian cigarettes without filters, but with long cooling tubes. (Wikipedia has some info here.) I remember being offered papirosi by a classmate who had returned from a visit to the USSR–they had about two inches of tobacco and four inches of cooling tube. They were interesting, but it was easy to tell that the tobacco was burning hot, and the cooling tube was there for a reason. I’d imagine that Parliament’s quarter-inch distance is there for the same reason, although at that short length, I can’t see it being very useful.
The British Constitution?
(That’s usually the reason why Parliament does something odd.)
G, D & R
IMHO, this makes the most sense to me. I don’t tend to let my tongue touch the filter, so I have some doubt about the “keeping the filter away from the tongue” theory.
wonders what sort of bong advice one might be able to glean from Spoons
I also think it helps to prevent burning your mouth on the filter. Way back when I smoked, I’d occasionally burn my mouth on a normal cigarette if I tried to smoke it too low. This never happened on a Parliament.
Very little, I’m afraid. I smoke tobacco only, in a briar pipe (though I’d love to try a Sherlock Holmes meerschaum-and-calabash pipe someday). Sadly, I cannot help with other substances smoked in other kinds of pipes. But have you ever tried a Danish Navy Flake in a hand-carved Stanwell briar pipe…? 
Parliament TV Ads:
You can view the cigarette TV ads at:
Since the issue seems to be resolved, I have a related hijack question:
What is the idea behind the hollow cardboard tube filters used in the Russian Belomorkanal cigarettes? On seeing them my first thought was that it was a way of cooling the smoke, but having tried them I found that the smoke was still very hot (and quite unpleasant - those things are strong.) Any suggestions?