Health
The Truth about Cigarette Smoking
Written by BuddhaBen on October 18, 2007 1:33 pm EST
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So RJ and Phillip have been spending the last decade paying hot college girls to walk through the clubs of every metropolitan city in the country and offer free cigarettes. “All you have to do Kiddo is just swipe that information-rich drivers license right into my here data extraction remarketing cross promotional hand held computer device and just type your email address here, signature saying ˜you allow me to market anything I want to you and sell your info multiple times right here good and here’s your two free pack of cigarettes.” Thank you come again!
And now my friend you are on “The List”…they own you.
Don’t worry. It starts slow. First you get some coupons, maybe a survey. Psst! “Hey kid, what is it that you like, huh, huh. Menthol, reds, lights, recessed filter?” Mmm, says the machinemore infofeed me Seymour!
So larger it gets does project “information extraction”. Years of research, gathering demographic information, and at the same time literally giving away those tasty, stylish, attitude building, candy to a baby, make me cooler cigarettes.
And now.the marketing gets better.
Lighters!! and not the crappy kind with the resin stains on the bottom. Not the kind that is so insignificant that you are unwilling to spend any brainpower on losing it. I’m talking metal, yes metal! And stylish.very stylish. Did I mention windproof flameless ignition?
Next is the ashtray. It too is quite stylish, with some rugged-type, girls-like-me, smoking-is-cool kinda outdated paisley rock star design.on brushed steel nonetheless.
Then you get a portable dominoes set, a grill-out cookbook, more coupons and an offer from a competing brand who bought your information from the first company. (and there’ only 2, not too many industries with just 2 players, seems a little funny,eh?just a thought)
Next comes music oooh. A music industry sees an opening and wants in. So now you’ve got a mix tape of dj-nicotine’ funky groove hip hop meets house vol.1. What th! It’ like Starbucks gone tobacco, has the world gone mad!!
Just so you know I’m not making this up, here’ a recent Pall Mall marketing masterpiece with the aforementioned lighter:
Here’ a quick iq test question: Which one of these words doesnt belong?
Value
Taste
Color
Attitude
Style
Premium tobacco
Are you kidding me!?!?! What is going on here?! They are doing such a wonderful job at creating my whole smoking experience, and all I keep thinking is that my clothes stink, I feel like crap and I dont even like smoking.
But now you’re hooked.
Youre an official smoker. Youve joined the club and received your t-shirt (and hat, belt buckle and bandana). Youve bought the carton (because you think that’ an investment), youve joined the Marlboro frequent smoker club, youve shared it with your frieuh, oh.
And now you become their marketing team.
This is where the cost effective, value added, revenue driving, marketing genius, social networking, viral marketing aspect comes into play. Because you are in the demographic of 18-30 year olds who socialize, you naturally influence your peers. Especially the young ones! I mean the 18-20 year olds that have an influence on the 15-18 year olds. You know, the age at which most people start smoking. This is where the heavy marketing influence of big tobacco just spreadslike a cancer. Except this disease doesnt just spread from cell to cell, it spreads throughout the youth of this country. Move ahead 30 years.
And now to introduce you to. Pharma!
Yes, Im talking about the side-effect inducing, ask- your-doctor-about-erectile dysfunction, make-up diseases on-the-fly nonsense that is ruining the industry which is supposed to be about scientists curing diseases and studying molecules and researching and understanding and debating and formulating and not marketing and promoting and pop culturalizing the cure for bad parenting.
Im sorry I yelled. But seriously!?
Whew. So what is the truth about smoking cigarettes? The truth is that some people smoke, and have for a while. It’ been going on since American Spirit was a bunch of Navaho’s fogging out the teepee. But today, just doesnt seem natural. These things are filled with harmful chemicals and manufactured with the intent of influencing you in the form of addiction. Lets be honesttoday, smoking is a business. It is about money. It is not a national pastime, leisure activity, after dinner treat, stress reducer, bonding experience, ritual of subdual or rite of passage. We know too much. We know it’ bad for us, really bad, and we allow this to go on? It’ blatant. It’ a slap in the face. What are you What am I What are WE going to do about it?
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7 Responses to “The Truth about Cigarette Smoking”
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October 18th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
It is very simple. Much simpler than we think. We need to let the market handle it. The government should make sure that tobacco companies put their warnings on the boxes/ads and that should be the end of the controls. I believe in freedom. Freedom to choose what to do with your life and freedom to sell/buy. Freedom for me to buy a cigarette and freedom for the tobacco companies to sell it to me. We have a CONSTITUTIONAL right to freely contract with each other. The government needs to stay out of it. It is not their business to protect me from myself. Again, I do agree that the government should make sure that tobacco companies warn consumers. But that’s it! If tobacco companies are good at marketing, then congratulations to them. If they are really good at marketing, then I will probably buy stock in their company…and then congratulations to me. =) Welcome to capitalism and freedom. It works. If you don’t want your kids to smoke, then don’t smoke and teach them correctly. If they don’t listen, then they will pay the consequences later.
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:41 am
Martin, my oh so opinionated friend. I knew you would come through for me and defend the invisible hand. So let me get this straight, according to your logic, you would be ok with gun companies and porn distributors to market glocks and c***s to your 18 yr old daughter!? At what point does someone need to take responsibility for educating our youth. You talk about freedom, is this the same freedom that performs wire taps and starts wars?
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:12 am
Oh Ben Ben Ben! First of all, I have no problem with guns being sold to everyone and anyone who wants one (as long as (1) they don’t have a violent crime in their criminal history, and (2) they have proof that they have taken a safety class and a class that teaches how to operate the gun). In fact, I believe that I, as a Public Defender, would be out of a job if the government legalized guns and drugs. There would be very little crime on our streets if we were lucky enough to end these black markets.
Now, I’m not sure about what you meant regarding porn. Do you actually believe that porn should be illegal to an 18-year-old adult??????
Almost all of our society’s problems stem from prohibition. We need to get past that and live and let live. We saw in the 20s that prohibiting alcohol was a huge mistake, which gave extremely high amounts of power to gangsters and mafioso. Then we criminalized drugs, which gave a new market to the gangsters after alcohol was legalized. The prohibition of Prostitution also keeps these black markets strong. Same with guns. And if we continue to overly tax cigarettes to insanely high percentages, people will start going to the black market.
Keep in mind that the black market is very very dangerous. It is not regulated, it is self-policed, and it will never go away as long as the product is prohibited and there is a market out there for it. If you legalize these things, they could be regulated by consumer groups (not the government).
On a side note, since you brought it up, I do not agree with wire tapping of US citizens but I have no problem with our military conducting espionage activity against our enemies. Secondly, are you saying that you do not believe that there is a such thing as a just war? (I’m not saying that I agree with the Iraq war, but you were talking about war generally). I was just curious if you were one of those idiot morons who actually believes that war is wrong no matter what.
October 25th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Good post. The cigarette cos. are continually targeting the next generation through marketing tactics such as these. It is unfortunate. The product is insidious. Good job on making the Gimmie the Scoop readers aware of this.
October 25th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
“The product is insidious.” So what? So are several other products. What gives the government the right or power to decide what products I should be allowed to use? WE LIVE IN AMERICA. THE HOME OF THE FREE.
“Marketing tactics such as these.”
Are you trying to say that people cannot think for themselves? Only adults are allowed to smoke. By the time someone is 18, they need to be able to think for themselves. If someone gives a kid a cigarette, then charge them with a crime.
October 26th, 2007 at 9:28 am
“What gives the government the right or power to decide what products I should be allowed to use?”
I believe it is the constitution that gives the government that right. Are you saying that marijuana, and crystal meth should be legal?
October 28th, 2007 at 10:57 am
Yes. I am saying that marijuana, crystal meth, any all other substances should be legal. Where in the constitution does it give the government that power? I’ll tell you because I know the Constitution like the palm of my hand….No where. The Constitution ensures that the government will be weak against its citizens.
I want you to really open your mind right now and consider what I am trying to say. I want you to just think about the “result” of the policy that you are in favor of. That is the most important thing about policy-making. The expected result. I am not saying that I believe that everyone should be doing this terrible stuff, but what I am proposing won’t change that. By making crystal meth legal, I don’t believe that anyone that is clean from drugs will start taking meth. Legality plays almost no part in whether people do drugs. In fact, I think some people (mostly kids) do drugs because its illegal. But, that is not what my policy’s intended goal is. My intended goal for this specific policy (i.e., ending prohibition of drugs, prostitution, guns, etc.) is to end the black market. See my above comments as to the results of having a black market. This would dramatically reduce violent crimes and save many many lives and force would be drug dealers (who are usually extremely bright) to do something legitimate with their time.
I am not saying that we shouldn’t do something to try to convince people not to do drugs but that is a separate policy concern. The problem with politicians today is that they don’t tackle things one issue at a time. Someone says, “Hey. Legalize Marijuana!” And they say, “No, we don’t want our kids on Marijuana.” The problem is that one has nothing to do with the other.
My policy for reducing drug use is simple. (#1) Encourage schools to be very very clear in its educational messages about anti-drugs. (#2) Let the market work. Take away the social services given to people who are on drugs. Force them to work…and when they can’t get a job because they are too high all the time, let them starve until they realize that they have to choose between drugs and food. If they have kids, take the kids away from them, just as we do today. I agree that kids should not be around drugs.
Anyway, my point is this. If you are going to think about policy, you have to consider the result of the policy. Remember, many times, what seems to make sense on the surface, is not the correct answer.
I speak to people all the time about this issue. These are people who have never thought about anything politically but they think that drugs should be illegal. They say that they don’t think it should be legal because drugs are bad. This kind of thinking is not thinking through the problem at all and it scares me how many people in America, including the politicians think this way.