big tobacco

[Jim Baird]

Finally was dragged to see Avatar.

Question: How many dollars did it cost Big Tobacco to get that line about needing a GD smoke + two scenes of Sigourney with a butt hanging off her lip?

[mgbinspect]

Well, Inspecting in the hometown of Phillip Morris, who has actually spun off ownership of cigarette manufacturing to underling companies, I'm reminded of the old joke: where does a 200 lb canary perch? - wherever it wants...

It's a funny habit - Never was an addiction to me. I quit cold turkey many times for weeks, months and sometimes years! I finally kicked it for good in 1989. It's a killer, and the older we get, the more certain its lethalness becomes, that's for sure...

I believe Mark Twain said it best, "Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know, because I've done it thousands of times."

[hausdok]

I never smoked.

I can think a woman is the most beautiful creature in the world until I see her put a cigarette in her mouth and then she never looks quite so beautiful to me again.

You're right; it is a killer - it took my little sister at the age of 38. She'd quit four years previously but I guess cancer doesn't pay attention to that kind of thing.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Mark P]

Mark Twain smoked 20 cigars a day. I quite smoking when my 1st son was born, 17 years ago this month. It sucked and realy took a full year before the cravings went away completly.

[mgbinspect]

I know for each person, it is different. some folks have spoken of severe addiction. For me, it was purely a physical habit - the sensation and the motion - so much so, that I'd find myself flicking pens as if I was flicking off an ash.

Quiting for me was always a reprogramming event that began by getting up one day with the resolution to not have another. It usually took an event such as burning a hole in the seat of my brand new car, or lighting a cigarette and instantly realizing that one was already lit and resting in an ash tray on the other side of the room smoldering away. Such moments would make me ask myself, "Who's in control, here?" Then the war would begin. As each day without one went under the bridge, I had a larger achievement that I did not wish to erase by breaking down.

It was always months or years later that I would have one again. I suppose the most curious thing is that a great deal of the habit is fueled by a sub-conscious peer pressure - an internal right of passage - toward such images as maturity, camaraderie, deep thinking, all of which, in reality, a mature mind could quickly dismiss as utterly ridiculous - as ridiculous as putting a gun to your head...

[Marc]

Never picked up a smoking habit, though I can't take the credit. My father gave me a giganic cigar to pop some firecrackers on a Fourth of July when I was in my early teens. I had bought the firecrackers but had forgotten a 'lighter stick'. I spent the night curled around a bed post, my face as white as a sheet of paper. My father had quit smoking before I was born but once a year or less, he would enjoy a cigar and so he kept one or two hidden.

Of course, my mother wasn't home that day, otherwise I could have turned out to be a smoker.

Marc

[Steven Hockstein]

My brother and his wife smoke. Not being a smoker, I never could understand how there could be any pleasure in taking some tobacco leaves, rolling them into paper, lighting them on fire, and breathing in the smoke. I wish he would quit.

My Uncle was a smoker and quit about 25 years ago. He was very organized (some would call it OCD) and put the cost of two packs of cigarettes into a jar every single day. Once a year, my Aunt and Uncle would go on a vacation with the money he saved. He passed away about 7 years ago. If he was still alive, and with the current cost of cigarettes, he would be able to have a very luxurious vacation with the money he would be saving!

[Jim Baird]

I know the OP was borderline political, but it raised the question of "product placement", which is a not uncommon form of backdoor advertising.

Because big T has been under such a barrage of criticism for its advertising in general, and for its lack of candor under questioning about the addictive properties of its product, I am convinced that industry-wide lobbying money is being offered to moviemakers who will put a cig in the mouth of a character, or insert some dialogue about how great it is to smoke.

Avatar cost over 250 million to make, and I can't imagine its makers being in need of extra financing, but I also cannot imagine a more spurious line and/or scene than the ones I mentioned. On the scale by which this film is financed, hyped, and distributed, I have to think the payoff for the cig scenes was rather high.

I smoked myself for 25 or 30 years, and I felt full well its addictive aspects. I don't remember when or how I quit, but I do know that I did it by myself, and that it only took my realization mentally that I did not need a smoke.

[Jack Ahern]

Quit in1978. New child coming==new house bought. My kids never saw me light up anything. It is not easy. My wife put up with it for a while(2/3 packs a day). It was my decision.[:-banghea

[Les]

Well, this thread is taking on a life of its own!

I smoked 2-3packs per day for forty-six and a half years. Camel unfiltered for 25yrs and Camel filters for 21 yrs.

Smoked in the jungle, on all types of aircraft, movie theaters, hospitals, busses, St Peter's Square, the great pyramid, bars and houses of ill repute. Never tried to quit, never tried to quit. Never wanted to quit. I just got up one day and quit. No drugs, help etc.

It was a part of my life I had lost control of.

The hardest part is my attitude about those that are critical of smokers. Someday when we are all together at the traveling road show, I may expound on personal habits and the freedom to be critical.

[mgbinspect]

I don't really experience any sort of bad feelings towards smokers at all. I'm a big restaurant fan, being single, and up until several weeks ago, cigarettesand restuaraunts were synonimous. But, I DO worry about my #1 son, who smokes newports like a chimney and has a cough. If something happens to him before me, I'll be absolutely crushed. I am afraid for him, no doubt...

[Marc]

When I was in college, 3 deaf friends and I went out for a night on the town (Rochester, NY). It was the middle of the winter, windows all rolled up and all 4 of us smoking a cigar for as long as we could each stand it just for the fun of it. None of us were regular smokers. I was the driver and the smoke was so dense that I had to lean forward as much as I could to see where I was going, no kidding.

Cig smoke never bothered me. I don't know why.

Marc

[mgbinspect]

Yeah, and about half the time when I'm around it, I still kinda want one. I just know better - It's always a tailspin right back into the habit.

[Jim Baird]

Les I guess you are blessed with an iron will. I had "tried" to quit before I did but my mistake was the "trying". The trick was not to do but to "not do". Completely mental.

The OP was not to elicit testimonials or to criticize smokers.

The OP tried to generate comments on whether big tobacco constitutes a threat to public health.

Their placement of cigs in movies is perfectly legal, I'm sure, but I agree with those who think their motives in targeting youth are not laudable to say the least. Remember Joe the Camel? How about Marlboro man.

What Avatar tells viewers is that the smartest, most daring, most good-looking, most heroic of us, even after the passage of a couple hundred more years, will be jumping up out of their time travel pods or whatever calling for a smoke, and that if we aspire to their level, maybe we should pick up a pack next time we're at the store.

That's all.

[mgbinspect]

"Originally posted by Jim Baird

The trick was not to do but to "not do". Completely mental."

Indeed, ya just gotta get up one day and not have a first and then get excited about every minute, hour, day, and month you've triumphed. It quickly becomes an accomplishment you don't want to erase through a weak moment.