Day 5 -- Perry

Mugello Italy

Listening to: Plush -- Stone Temple Pilots

Stop Smoking Here

I was doing really well today and was thinking I’ve got this smoking lark cracked. Then I was sick as a dog!

the day got off to a good start. I got up early and after breakfast, while waiting for my interpreter I lit my first cigarette of the day. I drive from my hotel to the Moto GP at Mugello and parked up on site. I spark up my second cigarette of the day as I walk the short distance through the pit area to meet the crew and the rest of the team.

All the local promotional models start to arrive and I greet them and then while I’m waiting for them to change I’m already on my third cigarette of the day and it’s only 9.30am. I brief the team and fire them up, today is race day and it’s is going to be very busy and also very hot.

The rest of the day is a bit of a blur until the race starts in the mid afternoon. Then we get a chance to relax, regroup, drink lots of water and smoke a few cigarettes.

An hour or so after the race finishes we start to wind the operation down and while the crowds bay to get out of the park we start to dine, have a couple of beers and relax. One of our drivers who also cooks a great BBQ  presents us all with a feast. I didn’t realise how hungry I was until this point. The beautiful Italian food hits the spot, as we sit in the sun and eat Al fresco. It’s a warm satisfy feeling to know you’ve worked hard with a great team and then enjoy each others company over good food, drink and banter.

When I finish I spark up a cigarette, I’ve got a bit of catching up to do. I was so busy today I never got the time to shoe-horn a fag break into the day. As I’m filming my diary cam daily for Smoke Swap I remember there was a Marlboro stand nearby. One of the team there gave me a branded lighter a couple of days ago. I thought it maybe a good idea to do a piece to camera in front of the famous red and white stand or maybe with the Marlboro Girls. One of the crew man the camera and I spark up another cigarette and I deliver my thoughts to camera.

All of a sudden I’m feeling red hot, break out into a sweat and I can feel my legs are about to buckle beneath me. I find somewhere to sit until the nauseous feeling pass. Thirty seconds later I run behind one of the trucks and the contents of my stomach come flying out. The cameraman isn’t far behind me and gets a shot of my pavement pizza.

I leave it a few hour before I smoke again. It was such a perfect day but spoilt by one to many cigarettes. The over-riding memory of the Mugello Moto GP for me is going to puking behind a truck. I should stop smoking now and forget Smoke Swap. It’s probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHF5VdAKEhk

How to Stop Smoking

Guts and Glory - Cigarette Adverting in Motorsport

Technorati Tags: fag, light, mugello, nauseous, sick, smoke swap, stop

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29/5/07 Katie Piper- 1 Day to Give Up Smoking

Well I never thought I’d see this day. The day when me and you are finally thru!

We’ve been through a lot, you’ve been there to calm me down when I’m stressed, put me at ease when I’m nervous and you defiantly are the perfect company when having a glass of wine.

But sadly my friend our time is up, now ever the optimist, I am looking forward to:

* Fresher breath (and hopefully an improved love life)

* Nails that aren’t always sporting that yellow ‘Nan’ manicure effect.

* Climbing the stairs without feeling suffocated!

Hey I’m nearly convincing myself this is a good thing! So Mr. Marlboro Light it is with haste I say goodbye to you. Now I’ve got to admit this whole experiment is giving me the jitters, for years I’ve been boasting, telling friends I’m not addicted, I’m a social smoker, can quit whenever I want, then the bombshell dropped, my dear friend Perry Stevens asks me to quit! I get that feeling of dread from top to toe, smile sweetly and say ‘sure no probs’, but racing thru my mind is ‘oh my god, I can’t do this’, does this mean I really am an addict? My worst fears confirmed!

Katie Piper

The word addicted makes my mind work over time conjuring up all sorts of imagery, will I be sniffing people out in the street offering 50 pence for a drag on their cigarette, will I suffer withdrawal, good god even the shakes! How un-desirable!

I’m hoping I will come out of this unscathed and be able to join that elite set of folk that is the ‘non smokers’, fellow smokers we all know who those elites are, the ones who look down their nose at you in a restaurant as they sip on their anti- chemical/anti-death green tea, the sparkly pleasant scented sort who shun you in bars as you spark up with the complimentary matches (you know the ones that always snap!)

So look out for me in a bar near you soon, ill be the one sat in the corner chewing my nails and gum whilst peeling the label off my beer bottle! Wish me luck my friends!

Do you need help to stop smoking? Click here for more information about quit smoking today!

Technorati Tags: katie piper, light, Marlboro, quit smoking, smokers, stop smoking

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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

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6Ti2nExlUk

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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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?

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Monday 21 March 2005 Perry

1^st of a two-day meeting at PM HQ. Introduced to Marlboro Blend 28 and discussed marketing strategy with major blitz on London. Product is designed to capture B&H market by appealing to smokers of blended tobacco instead of Marlboros traditional Virginia tobacco.

First look today at a PM vending machine that operates with credit cards. This allows the company not only to track sales, but also gather customer information. Vending operators will have direct competition from manufacturer soon On-Trade. They are not going to be happy!

I had my resignation letter in my brief case and was going to quit today but after the meeting had wound up, my line managers were engaged in some debate and looked stressed. I didn’t have the heart to drop the bombshell on them. Typical, always thinking about everybody else accept me. Well, there’s always tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: 28, B&H, Benson and Hedges, blend, blended, light, machines, Marlboro, Philip Morris, PM, stop, tobacco, vending, virginia

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