Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Kudos, Philip Morris International. Your caring spirit—you know, the one in your PSAs—shines again.
I have a hard time expressing how angry/sad/hurt I get when I'm reminded of the purpose of tobacco companies, so I won't even try this time. But here's the culprit in my latest surge of anti-tobacco soapboxing. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120156034185223519.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone
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2 comments:
Have you ever said what causes you to have such violent reactions against Big Tobacco? Or is it just what those companies stand for that gets your goat? Was there on "defining moment" where you remember being moved to stand up against the tobacco industry?
I don't like that they've historically lied about their product and its effect on health. We're talking about a product that kills 1/3 of people who use it as intended by the manufacturer. I think it's amazing that tobacco companies can live with themselves. My dislike for them has grown as I've spent more and more time through the years thinking about it, and as i've developed my own ethical 'theories' and become more firm in my views on social responsibility. i also used tobacco companies and/or smoking as the topic of almost every psych and advertising paper I could in college--i was mildly interested in it when i started choosing the topic, and i became more and more interested (and affected) as i'd write each one. but i suppose what you're really looking for is something like this. my grandpa died of lung cancer before my brother and i were born, and while i sure wish i could have known him, what kills me more is thinking about my dad not being able to have his kids know his dad. how much it must have hurt to know when his dad was dying that his kids would not know his dad. and to think that lies the tobacco companies told could have had a role in that makes me very, very angry. i'm a bit protective of my parents. i don't generally broadcast that portion of the reason I react to tobacco companies the way I do, because I don't want people to discount the position as one just based on emotion. It's not that at all. Sure, emotion was part of the drive way back when to start exploring the entire issue of smoking behavior and how tobacco companies operate, but the anger is based on evidence—and on how that evidence flies in the face of everything I believe about social responsibility and ethical living.
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