StopSmokingInsideMan.com

Today started of well. I’ve come up with a strategy to ensure I get my ten a day in. After every meal and every break I’ll have a cigarette. That should  take me above half way. The other three or four cigarettes I can smoke at the end of the day to reward myself. If I’m going to complete this experiment successfully I will have to start thinking like a smoker and plan my waking hours around smoking. Of course if I was a smoker I would do this without thinking as it would be habitual.

I had breakfast early and had a cigarette immediately afterwards. I head back to my room and brush my teeth, pick up my bag and head to the garage to take the car out. On the short walk from the hotel to the garage I spark up my second cigarette of the day. I love the smell of four thousand burning carcinogenic substances in the morning. Not!

I get on site and some of the crew notice I’ve started smoking. I explain what and why I’m doing it. Some of them look at me with the look of ‘You stupid southern fuckin’ idiot’ on their faces (I inform them that I was actually born in the Midlands) while others are more than happy to offer me a cigarette, coach me on cool ways to smoke, teach me tricks with a lighter or tell me anecdotes about the three strike rule.

The Three Strike Rule

The three strike rule first appeared during the war. I’m not sure which war but I would assume it was World War I. Soldiers would congregate together and share tall tales about girls, nylons and chocolate. It’s blackout and a nazi sniper could be almost anywhere. A soldier pulls out a pack of ‘Luckies’ he won of an American GI in a game of cards and offers them around his comrades in arms. Soldier #1 strikes a light and because he’s British a polite offers soldier #2 a light first. The sniper sees the flicker of a flame and takes aim. Soldier #1 offers soldier #3 a light. The sniper steadies the shot and slowly sqeezes the trigger. Soldier #1 then lights his own cigarette and promptly hits the dirt as the sniper offloads a round in to his forehead. Back then no-one knew cigarettes could kill, but they were learning fast, hence the three strike rule.

Cigarettes kill more people than all the world wars combined. One person every five minutes dies from a smoking related disease.

A collegue came up to me backstage ‘I noticed you’re smoking, so can I blag a cigarette of you?’ ‘Yeah no problem’ I say offering him a B&H. ‘Oh, you’re alright, I’ll ask someone else for one’ he said‘ They taste like shit!’ Now I’m no connesier but they all taste like shit to me! A smokers’ sense of taste is seriously eroded because of their habit but it is comical how they debate the taste of one cigarette over another. Of course they are fooling themselves. And so started a debate about the various merits of one cigarette brand over another. It amazes me how passionate people can be about their cigarettes. How emotionally connected they are to their cigarettes. They identify themselves and others by the brand they smoke. An attack on their brand of cigarette is a personal attack on themselves or their Mothers such is the close relationship fostered between man and cigarette. Marlboro is the second biggest brand in the world (Pampers is the biggest apparently, not Coca-Cola as everyone presumes). So with over seventy years of advertising, brand positioning and marketing behind it most of the messages you take from that little box of twenty have been conveyed to you so many times you don’t even question them.

The Nazis had a very effective propaganda campaign in the 1930 and 40’s – take a simple message and repeat it many times. Eventually you don’t question it, you take it as gospel. This is exactly the same when it comes to building a brand such Marlboro Lights. I always say question everything. Nothing happens by accident and if there is money to be made prepare to ask many questions.

Cigarettes are broken down into two categories:

1)      Virginia tobacco cigarettes

2)      Blended tobacco cigarettes

If most cigarettes fall in to the two categories, why do smokers champion one brand over another? Well that’s down to marketing. I remember when I was at Philip Morris being told that Marlboro Lights sold more at the weekends than in the week. The reason behind this statement? People who would normally smoke a brand at of cheaper cost price and perception and would buy a packet of Marlboro Lights on a Friday night before heading out on the town. Along with their designer clothes, their mobile phone, lighter and their last fashion accessory a packet of cigarettes.

Of course we at Philip Morris spent a great deal of time and money positioning our brand in all the best and most aspirational bars, club, and parties in every city. The kind of clubs ordinary people can’t get passed the red rope. We sponsored exclusive and glamorous sports such as F1 were the average man in the street can’t afford a ticket. And sold the product exclusively at all the music festivals were all the great and the good of the rock n roll world would be. The people living the life we could only dream about.

So by buying a packet of Marlboro Lights at the weekend and putting them on the table with my bottle of over priced Czeck beer I’m saying to my friends and peers ‘Hey look at me! I belong to this elite club, I’m sophisticated, I’m cultured, I’m a modern man of the world. I’m in Monte Carlo and rubbing shoulders with Kate Moss and I can afford to buy this brand so look out ladies here I come!

The reality is I’m in a chain bar in Lincoln, my shirt is a fake designer label knock-off from the market, no-one has called me on my mobile all night and I’m topping my trendy bottle of beer up from a hip flask because I can’t afford to spend £6.00 on a pint of lager. I know this but the perception to others is different. Well until I get pissed and drop a kebab down the front of my shirt while walking home zig-zag style down the street it is.

SMOKES TODAY – 10 out of 10

Are you a victim of propaganda? Get Help to Stop Smoking.

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Allen Carr was a life long smoker and now famous ex-smoking author of Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking. Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop Smoking has been translated into over 25 languages and sold well over 6 million copies. This makes it the authority book on quitting smoking.

The common theme throughout Allen Carr’s book is the removal of fear. The Easyway is so successful because Allen understands the psychological dependence smokers have with cigarettes, the book will set you free to become a happy non-smoker.

Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking has celebrity endorsements by Sir Richard Branson, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Carole Caplin, Emma Freud, Gianlucca Vialli and Ellen DeGeneres.

Click her for more information about Allen Carr’s Clinics

Click her to get your Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking book or DVD

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Monday 14^th May Perry

Listening to: Portishead – Humming

Emotion – relaxed

Days until smoke down – 7

Wow, what a day and I’m not referring to the bloody weather. But Barh! The bloody weather. It feels like I’ve called or wrote to every doctor, professor, hospital or medical agency in the book today after finding out the doctor I thought was on board is no longer on board. But good news came my way by way of a phone call during a meeting with my editor. Fingers crossed but we could be back on track. Oh sunny days!

Prior to that, I met up with Neil Boorman to discuss producing a short retrospective documentary about The Bonfire of the Brands www.bonfireofthebrands.com. We first met when I was marketing Marlboro cigarettes. Today we met in Soho in a non-branded tea and patisserie shop for afternoon tea and patisseries and discussed his fascinating project and how since the burning he has lived a no brand existence.

His book is out in September and will make essential reading. I think a copy should be given away to every reader of Heat magazine!

He’s been burning one brand for years – Marlboro Lights, but not any more!

Technorati Tags: cigarettes, fire, lights, Marlboro, smoking

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NICOTINE REPLACEMENT THERAPY

 The truth the agencies in the last blog don’t want you to know about.

Cigarettes are a highly refined nicotine delivery system that last year alone generated £8,000 million for the government’s coffers.

Today, with greater restrictions imposed on marketing and the sales of cigarettes and the immanent ban on smoking in confined spaces, more and more people are looking at giving up the weed.

Although many of the 4000 ingredients found in the burning of cigarettes are carcinogenic, Nicotine is highly addictive and as dangerous as heroin.

 So if you want to stop smoking what are the alternatives?

Will power or cold turkey – on your own dealing with the addiction, breaking the habit, the cravings and the physicality of what to do with your hands. This method is attributed to have a success rate of 1%. (That’s someone who is a non-smoker one year after giving up)

Nicotine Replacement Therapy – patches, gum, nasal spray, microtab, lozenge and inhalators.

If you approach a doctor, pharmacist of healthcare professional expressing support to give up smoking you are offered one of the above listed forms of NRT.

These products are manufactured by large pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline & Pharmacia and are advertised as twice as effective as will power alone. Wait a minute, willpower alone is 1% successful so NRT is 2% successful or 98% unsuccessful. So why do medical professionals, NHS Smoking Helpline, Quit, British Heart Foundation and ASH promote them above all else and are there any other alternatives?

Well all of these institutions and charitable bodies rely on either the government or the pharmaceutical industry for a sauce of revenue. I’m sure the people who work for any of these bodies are good people with good intensions but I can’t help thinking there is a serious conflict of interest here. This results in the people who need the real help in kicking the smoking habit swap cigarettes for patches.

A common argument is that the government needs revenue from smokers or the economy would be screwed, but by swapping cigarettes for NRT this revenue stream continues to flow. So who has reverted back to smoking? Are you on a continuous cycle of smoking, NRT, smoking? So you tell me who’s getting screwed?

Hypnotherapy – Men’s Health recently reported a success rate of 80% of stopping smoking with hypnosis and New Scientist wrote hypnosis is the most effective way of giving up smoking, according to the largest ever scientific comparison of ways of breaking the smoking habit, willpower, it turns out, counts for very little.

Why are alternative treatments like hypnotherapy and acupuncture not offered to people who wish to stop smoking when they appear to be the best method to stop? Is it because there isn’t a consistent revenue stream flowing back to the government coffers?

More information about how to quit smoking. at Men’s Health.

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Sunday 13 May 10.03pm Perry

Listening to – Bush -- Come Down

Emotions – Reflective

Days until smoke down – 8

‘Dates change, seasons change, people don’t change’ (Jack in 16 Blocks). Just finished watching the DVD and of course Jack (Bruce Willis) changes but you knew that anyway.

As I got online today the following article appeared on my AOL home page. Signs are everywhere.

Smoking: Busting the Myths.

We all know that smoking is bad for you -- but sometimes it’s easier to believe the various half-truths and myths that surround smoking than to accept that it’s time to give up.

Here we debunk some of those myths once and for all. Bring on the nicotine patches!

Smoking makes you sexy

In fact, male smokers are twice as likely as non-smokers to suffer impotence. Around 120,000 men in their thirties and forties are impotent in the UK as a result of smoking.

The habit will also make your skin wrinkled and can leave you looking 10 to 20 years older than you really are, according to the Government’s Chief Medical Officer.

Smoking calms you down

It actually makes you more anxious -- because when you aren’t having a cigarette, you end up suffering nicotine withdrawal symptoms, which make you crave another. Rather than being pleasurable in itself, it’s a way of easing your withdrawal -- a bit like hair of the dog, really.

Your health barely suffers if you smoke fewer than 10 cigarettes a day

Sadly not true. Research shows that if you smoke one to four cigarettes a day, you’re three times more likely than a non-smoker to die from lung cancer or heart disease.

What’s more, there is some evidence that the number of years you smoke affects your cancer risk more than the amount you smoke each day.

Smoking ‘low-tar’ brands will protect my health

Low-tar cigarettes are just as harmful as regular brands, because people inhale them much more deeply to satisfy their nicotine cravings. Nor are you safe if you avoid inhaling, because you’ll still be at risk of cancers of the mouth, throat and food pipe (oesophagus), which can be very disfiguring.

My gran smoked 80 a day and died in her sleep at 94, so it can’t be that bad…

We all have different genes and surroundings, which make some people more vulnerable to the damage done by smoking. But smoking dramatically increases your chance of dying early and getting cancer, heart disease or another smoking-related illness.

Smoking helps you keep your weight down

This is true, in that the habit reduces your appetite and makes your body waste energy. But you can avoid weight gain if you start to take more exercise (easier when you don’t smoke) and/or cut your intake of alcohol and high-calorie foods.

There’s no point in stopping now -- the damage is done

In fact, your body starts to recover within minutes of you quitting. Within three days, breathing will be easier and you’ll have more energy; and within a few weeks, exercise will be less of a struggle.

After ten years, your risk of lung cancer is about half that of a smoker, while your risk of a heart attack is the same as non-smokers’.

The only thing that can help you give up for good is willpower

Yes, willpower is vital, but there’s strong evidence that using nicotine replacement products such as gum and patches can roughly double your chances of success, because they take the edge off the cravings you will feel in your first few days.

You can get NRT on prescription from your GP and there are also prescription drugs that your GP can give you to dramatically boost your chances of success.

It’s better to cut down gradually than to stop suddenly

The problem with cutting down is that you may never actually quit altogether. However, recent research shows that people who can’t face going cold turkey can give up by gradually cutting back on fags while starting to use nicotine replacement therapy to fill some of their nicotine gap -- then, eventually, coming off NRT.

The NHS is too poor to help me quit

In fact, the NHS runs free stop smoking groups all over the country -- and you can join one by getting a referral from your GP.

For expert advice on quitting, call Quitline 0800 00 22 00, or the NHS Smoking Helpline on 0800 169 0169.

Other good sources of support and information are the British Heart Foundation and Action on Smoking and Health.

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Cigarette butts or filters are the most common form of litter in westernised countries. It is estimated 4.5 trillion end up as litter on our streets not including discarded packs and their cellophane wrappers.

Keep your butt of the street.

Cigarette filters are not biodegradable as cellulose acetate, a form of plastic is one of the components that make up the butt and never breaks down. A high number of these filters which contain hundreds of harmful chemicals are swept into the water system were the poisons leak out. Carelessly discarded cigarette butts are also the main cause of house and forest fires the world over. We only have to look at the huge forest fires outside Los Angeles in May 2007 to show the needless destruction of natural parkland around the famous Hollywood sign due to a single discarded cigarette butt.

Fish, birds, animals and even children have been known to eat these filters inadvertently causing blocked digestive and excretory systems, poisoning and even death, all are which are preventable if the filters were deposited responsibly in ashtrays by the smoker, instead of discarded on the ground.

The tobacco industry could also implement steps to minimise the effects of discarded filters on the environment from printing ‘Do not litter’ slogans on packs or even on the cigarette itself. This can be done in words or pictures as on most confectionary items.

The tobacco industry could also invest some of their huge cash profits into a program of supplying ‘personal ashtrays’ with every pack of cigarettes or sell them as they do lighters or even build into the design of a lighter a holder for cigarette filters.

Unfortunately the tobacco industry seems to think the best course of action is to maintain a low profile while working to exempt cigarettes from coverage of pending litter control legislation. It believes the courtesy should be limited to the smoking of, rather than the disposal of tobacco products and by backing any fees or taxes to help clean up cigarette litter, they would be buying into the social cost argument against smoking.

Although a ‘no-litter’ campaign might be useful to tobacco companies, they would never be implemented before comprehensive cost/benefit analysis had taken place. It is obvious the tobacco industry cares little for the environment against their bottom line. However, governments and public opinion could open the eyes of these corporations and hit them were it hurts if anti- littering laws were upheld and the tobacco industry were to foot the bill for cleaning up our streets and water supply.

The medical and scientific evidence of tobacco smoking is widely known as a major cause of cancer and premature death. However what is not publicized is the effect the tobacco industry has on the earth’s protective ozone layer.

In the farming of tobacco, Methyl Bromide is used to fumigate soil. This gas is odourless, highly toxic and kills all living organisms. Over 5.5 million pounds of the substance is applied annually to tobacco crops. The US Environmental Protection Agency classifies it as one of the most lethal of acutely toxic pesticides. Those who come into contact with it can suffer poisoning, neurological damage and reproductive harm.  It also destroys the ozone layer. The depletion of the ozone layer leads to more global warning, increased skin cancer and eye cataracts from UV-B radiation. Couple this with the amount of chemical laden smoke released daily into the air and forest fires caused by carelessly deposited cigarette filters and vicious cycle starts to appear.

Over 450 pesticide products are registered in the USA alone for the use on tobacco crops. Approximately 90% of American-style tobacco is now grown by farmers in 78 countries outside of the USA and the US are now the largest importer of tobacco. This has had a huge effect on small farming, family communities throughout the US. The majority of these small farms have long gone after being sold to large companies. Some 500,000 existed in the 1950’s, today around 85,000 struggle for survival. The tobacco companies blame the reduction of domestic tobacco demands on the decline of cigarette sales. However this 4-5% reduction does not compare to the 35% reduction in purchasing home grown tobacco.

Developing countries now produce the majority of American style tobacco. The crops are grown on small independent farms, under strict contracts with the corporations, which provide all inputs through a carefully controlled system of loans and credits. The tobacco companies provide credit for the farmers to build drying sheds to cure the tobacco leaf after harvest. This debt can take many years to repay and during this period farmers are also buying seeds, fertilizers and pesticides from the company increasing the debt burden.

Farmers are paid for the crop according to the quality of the harvest. In years of drought and other extreme weather conditions that seem to be more prevalent every year, crops can be destroyed forcing the farmers into selling the farm to pay back debts to the corporation and moving to the cities and favelas.

Ironically the amount of land currently used to grow tobacco worldwide could instead be used to feed 10 to 20 million people. When good farmland is diverted to grow tobacco crops, governments may find themselves facing local food shortages and bearing the additional cost of importing food.

To ensure the continues high profit margins tobacco companies ruthlessly pursue, millions of pounds of toxic chemicals are used on millions of acres of land worldwide, land that could be or was once used to grow food. The global epidemic of the tobacco industry not only endangers smokers, it also threatens tobacco farmers and their families, pollutes the air we breathe, destroys insects and micro organisms at the bottom of the food chain, depletes the ozone layer that protects us, contaminates soil and poisons the water supply. We all should question the sustainability and sanity of the tobacco industry.

Click here For more information about cigarette litter and the environment.

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The major tobacco industry players are…

Philip Morris Ltd. Owned by Altria Inc.

Brands include – Marlboro, Raffles, Basic and Philip Morris.

1) The company manufactures, markets sells/distributes in more than 160 countries.

2) Produces 7 of the top 20 best selling global cigarette brands.

3) Collectively accounts for 18% of the global cigarette market.

4) Marlboro is one of only 2 brands with global sales exceeding $15bn per annum

The Marlboro Man advertising campaign by the Leo Burnett Agency is widely acknowledged as one of the all time most successful advertising campaigns. Ads  depicted nothing much to do with cigarettes (i.e. paper rolled around dried leaves), but propelled the brand to the forefront of premium cigarettes market. 

British American Tobacco / Rothmans

Brands include – Lucky Strike, Dunhill, Rothmans and Royals

1) The company operates in more than 150 countries.

 Reynolds American Inc.

Brand include – Winston Salem

Gallaher

Brands include – Benson & Hedges, Silk Cut, Berkeley, Sovereign, Dorchester and Mayfair.

Imperial Tobacco

Brands include – Embassy, Regal, Superkings, Lambert & Butler and Richmond.

Tobacco companies such as BAT and Philip Morris both run Youth Smoking prevention programs as part of their corporate social agenda. The ‘you don’t have to smoke to be cool’ advert was shown on MTV Europe, minimum age notices are placed in points of purchase and the brand logo is not sold on caps and t-shirt.

However these initiatives are dwarfed by corporate sponsorship, marketing and point of sale activity of rock concerts, Formula 1 and other motor sports. These events are attended predominately by young people whose perception of rock stars or the motor racing champion is one of cool and glamorous, who lives an inspirational lifestyle all young people can only dream off.

The reality of driving for most people is one of congestion, frustration and pollution. Cars have always been sold on an image of open roads, hassle free driving and freedom to travel. These associations have always been the Marlboro Mans identity. Sponsoring motor-sport has taken the campaign yet another step forward from the days of the cowboy.

Rock ‘n’ Roll stars have always been aligned with rebellion, free wheeling, on the edge and everything the previous generation despises. Again these are all qualities young people identify with and want to be a part off. These qualities are coincidentally the same as the Marlboro Man myth.

The reality the original Marlboro Men, Wayne McLaren, is that he succumbed to lung cancer and died at the age of 51. McLaren’s brother provided a voiceover over a withered image of Wayne in a hospital bed prior to his death asking the question ‘Lying there with all those tubes in you, how independent can you really be?’

Cigarette girls are used extensively to reinforce the brand in bars clubs, high profile events, parties, film premiers, fashion shows, concerts, festivals and restaurants. Although giving away free product to customers is no longer prohibited selling them at a great reduction isn’t. There is also the perceived association of beautiful models and cigarettes, the image of glamour is aspirational and being at all the right places. It sends out a message that if you smoke you can be ‘hot like me’. Again associating cigarettes to sexy, young and glamorous women enforces the image the brands try to portray. It is the wrong message to send out when about one fifth of 15 year olds are regular smokers, with the number of girls lighting up outnumbering boys. Most of the girls I knew who promoted cigarettes in bars don’t actually smoke.

The image of smoking in the all media is still perceived as cool. From 50’s stars such as James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause), to Michael Caine (Get Carter) right through to today’s blockbusters starring Brad Pitt (Fight Club) and John Travolta (Swordfish). These stars are immortalized in film images that are so strong the picture could be still endorsing cigarettes as a ‘cool thing’ 50 or 100 years from now in cinemas and in your home on DVD.

Dirk Bogart           Celebrities           John Wayne

Throughout the 90’s the TV and film franchise ‘The X Files’ contained a character played by the non-smoking actor – William B Davis called ‘Cancer Man.’ The Fox TV publicity department were more PC and referred to the character as ‘Cigarette Smoking Man.’

For film directors today to reinforce the image of smoking as a cool character trait is morally irresponsible, lazy and shows a great lack of imagination.

Certain celebrities revel in their ability to smoke cigarettes like it’s a badge of honor. The problem is in these days when celebrity is celebrated and impressionable young people readily buy into it, promoting smoking is not only irresponsible but stupid. Not all the blame can be laid at the door of this or that celerity. The media should be more careful of what photographs and images they choose to reproduce.

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Killing your customers is not generally considered a good business practise, but tobacco companies seem to excel in this field. 

Associated health problems attributed to the smoking of cigarettes prior to the 1930’s were unknown. ‘Doctor Recommended’ and ‘Good for Digestion’ advertisements were common in the 1920’s. Then in 1932 a paper published by the American Journal of Cancer made the connection between cigarettes and cancer. 

Many more papers were subsequently released, solidifying the health issues from cigarettes. By 1957 the Surgeon General (USA) became involved with the issues and by 1964 he had filed an official report connecting cigarettes to cancer.

In the early 70’s a Smoking Act was passed by the US Congress, TV bans and warning labels were brought into effect. Within the space of four decades the image of cigarettes had changed. Smokers (the minority) still believe it’s their right to smoke, not the non-smokers (the majority) right to breathe clean air. On 1^st July 2001 smoking will be banned in all public places in the UK following successful bans already in place in Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

Way back in 1973 warning labels were introduced and the first ban on smoking in a public place was introduced in Arizona. California, New York State and Ireland followed suit years later. Other countries throughout the European Union are now lining up to back a ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces

In 1984 warning labels were changed on the packet of cigarettes. Meanwhile in Canada, Brazil, Singapore and Thailand packs already contained graphic coloured images with additional health warnings. Ireland and Belgium have indicated that they will introduce some of the 42 images approved by the EU in the near future. 

                                                         Leo Burnett     

                         ’Original’ Marlboro                       

Philip Morris used the Leo Burnett Company in 1955 to develop a ‘minor cigarette brand with a predominately feminine image and turned it in to a big seller by using close-up photos of ruggedly handsome men’, The ‘Marlboro Man’ arguably the most successful marketing campaign ever, took the idea of smoking and linked it with the image of rebellion, freedom and personal choice. Thus, any attacks made on smokers or smoking becomes an issue of losing that freedom or the government interfering in the personal choices of the people. This changed somewhat in 1993 when passive smoking or second hand smoke was recognised as a cause of cancer. The issues of freedom to smoke and personal choice changed to one of injuring others.

      Marlboro Man circa 1955     

      Marlboro cowboy circa 1956     

Marlboro Country circa 1973

The tobacco companies answered by employing marketing strategies for a healthier cigarette, this started in 1952 with the introduction of filters. 1.3% of cigarette sales had filters in this year but by 1956 over 25% had filters. Now almost all cigarettes sold are filtered. The next step in the elusive search for the healthy cigarette occurred in the 70’s with the introduction of the ‘Tar Wars’. Arguable the most famous brand created was ‘Marlboro Lights.’ The words Light and Medium were outlawed in 2002 in the UK. Cigarette tar and nicotine yields are measured by machines that smoke but bear little relation to the way humans smoke cigarettes. However it is widely perceived that a Light alternative is safer but there is no evidence to support this.

The continuation of marketing ‘Marlboro Man’ and ‘Marlboro Country’ saw the emphasis shift from the product to one were a cigarette or pack of cigarettes had completely disappeared from the advertisements and now the focus was on satisfaction and taste. The whole appeal of the product is one of rebellion and freedom. Marlboro ads no longer sell a product but sell an image.

As the Western worlds taste for cigarettes diminishes with the knowledge of cancer and the new legislation against tobacco smoking in public places and raising the age to buy from 16 to 18, the tobacco companies shift their emphasis to new and emerging markets in developing countries. Not unlike other corporations who set up sweat shops in Free Trade Zones throughout the developing world, the tobacco companies are also taking advantage of cheap labour and land and take with them a whole new set of health, environmental and social problems. Although cigarette sales in the western world have diminished the tobacco companies report bigger profits year on year, but at what cost to public health and the environment?

Technorati Tags: cancer, Chesterfield, cigarette, cigarettes, environmental, filtered, filters, health, healthier, labels, leo burnett, light, Marlboro, marlboro country, marlboro man, menthol, nicotine, Philip Morris, profits, public health, ronald reagan, smoking act, social, tar, tobacco, warning

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January 2007 Perry

Invited over to Mumbai International Film Festival India to promote King of Kommunication, a short film I made the summer before. While there I looked into the marketing and advertising of cigarettes.

 Cigarettes on sale in a Chemists – Mumbai India 2007

 Advertisement above the Chemist door – Mumbai India 2007

 In a roadside kiosk cigarettes are sold alongside soda and sweets – Mumbai India 2007

Marlboro and Four Square cigarette advertisement above a roadside kiosk – Mumbai India 2007

Typical bar display cabinets of cigarettes – Mumbai India 2007

  20 B&H cost less than £1.50 UKP in a bar – Mumbai India 2007

Having heard horror stories about wild-west attitudes to marketing cigarettes in India it was reassuring to see the Indian government had stringent laws and restrictions in place against this. Although you can smoke in bars and restaurants (only inconsiderate bastards smoke in restaurants but there are still people out there arrogant enough to do so – Wankers!) advertising is largely restricted to point of sale.

Anti smoking advertisements were also played before movies in all cinemas. The audience seemed to enjoy King of Kommunication. Well they laughed in all the right places!

Technorati Tags: ad, ads, advertisments, B&H, bar, chemist, cigarette, cigarettes, cinema, display, Four Square, India, kiosk, laws, marketing, Marlboro, Mumbai, restaurants, tobacco

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December 2005 Perry

On a two month trip to Cuba I managed to wander around a tobacco farm. All the tobacco leaves here are sold to the government and made into one of the many famous cigars Cuba is known for. The leaf debris is not wasted. That goes on to make cigarettes.

>> Quit Smoking Now! <<

Tobacco plants and drying sheds – Cuba 2006

Above: This plantation was in the Vinales district of Cuba. The curing sheds were the tobacco is hung to dry out were severely damaged in the hurricanes that hit the Caribbean and Latin America a month earlier.

Real Fabrica de Tobacos – Cuba 2006

Above: Tobacco factory in Havana, Cuba. No cameras are allowed inside but hundreds of people are employed here for about $15 per month hand rolling cigars to be exported all over the world an incredibly inflated prices.  Typically a sngle Montechristo could set you back over £20 and a box of 25 could cost you over £500.

The factory produces around 30 different brands of cigar including Cohiba, Montechristo and Romeo Y Julieta using different or a combination of leaves for each brand.

The Cuban farmer, Me and my guide sit in a curing shed and pose with contrabound cigars.

Technorati Tags: brand, cigar, cigarettes, cigars, cohiba, contrabound, Cuba, Cuban, curing, de, fabrica, factory, farmer, leaf, leaves, montechristo, plant, real, rolling, Romeo Y Julieta, shed, tobacco, tobacos

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