Golden Bat Question

[Birgit Kellner]

This is not at all film-related, but knowing that there are quite a few
subscribers with admirable knowledge of pop-culture around - 

I recently picked up the "Pig Pile" CD of Big Black in a local 2nd hand
CD shop, apparently, it's a Japanese re-issue on the label "sento",
licensed from the original label "touch and go records" (released in
1992). Now, the reverse side of the CD-cover has a picture which
features the traditional packet of "Golden Bat"-cigarettes, only with
"Big Black" written instead of "Golden Bat". Golden Bat used to be cheap
filterless cigarettes; a filter-version was put on the market about a
year ago (or so). I smoke these new "Golden Bat" quite a lot, and
whenever I enter a bar and an older Japanese male sees my packet, he
usually comments along the lines of "natsukashii, I used to smoke those
when I was a student and didn't have any money" and so on (and then goes
on to buy me a drink, which I am quite happy about). 

So, what I would like to know: Why is the old packet of - the filterless
- Golden Bats drawn on this particular CD-cover? Is it also on the cover
of the original US-release? Or is this a gag merely for the Japanese
market? Were there ever "Golden Bat"-cigarettes in the USE? ...
Coincidence? Meaning? Pastiche?

Yours in merry post-modern confusion, 

-- 
Birgit Kellner
Department for Indian Philosophy
Hiroshima University