| > So what do we do? Hate to be a skeptic -- or realist -- (and also risk downvotes) but here goes. No matter what we try to do, it's looks like an Un-winnable battle. Unless Tobacco is outlawed, it's almost impossible to fight the entity known as "Big Tobacco". They have an army of lobbyists, congressmen, senators, and all other power decision makers in their pockets, and using a combination of the above people, they get BILLS signed into LAW that legalizes a lot of things that would be otherwise be CRIMINAL, and on top of that, have very shady, but highly effecting marketing schemes and PR that they perform, to target the crowd most susceptible to succumbing to tobacco - teenagers, young adults, and (young) military men. > AND THEN CAME THE CHRISTMAS CARDS. > Big Tobacco sponsored, organized, and paid for thousands of service members to receive tapes with video recordings of their families back home sending sweet messages for the holidays. Seems like a super f*king nice gesture, right? Until you hear what Big Tobacco sited as their motivation for the program.
“Positive publicity and goodwill associated with Marlboro,” and “awareness and visibility of Marlboro among young adult smokers.” > Today, 38% of US military smokers start after enlisting. Source: https://www.thetruth.com/articles/videos/exploitation-milita... |