iPhone offered as prize by Cancer Society in YouTube Contest

Well don't this just beat all.

Hot off the heels of last month's encouragin' article about YouTube bein' a safe haven fer tobacco companies lookin' to get the word out, we get this from the mamby pambies at the American Cancer Society and their Great American Smokeout video contest.



Personally I find it a might disgraceful that them American Cancer folks are buttin' in on the party over at YouTube. It's been said that "www" means "wild wild west" that means we got us a a safe place to spread the word without hassles like this from health nuts. Oh and there weren't no iPhones nor Cancer Societies nor Smokeyouts in the wild wild west. So what the heck is they doin' on my YouTubey.

And the fact they're usin' an iPhone as first prize stinks three ways to Sunday as well. I guess the deal is, they want ya'll to post a short video - under a minute long - tellin' folks why they shouldn't smoke. In the words of a slack jawed Gen-Xer, whatever. They got all their rules and such posted here at their new antismokin' site.

Sounds like an easy way to get one of them iPhones or an iPod but I won't be enterin'. I ain't sellin' out. My integrity and my retirement package from Liardare are worth 10 times one of them iPhones.

So y'all can enter, an win yer iPhone or yer iPods but I'm stickin' to my principles. Stick that in yer pipe and...well....do whatever you non-smokin' types do with pipes.

Pro Smoking ads on YouTube

Check this out from the ABC of Australia.  Apparently tobacco companies are findin' a new home on YouTube.  Good fer them.

Pro-smoking 'ads' target youth market on YouTube

by youth affairs reporter Michael Turtle

Posted Fri Sep 28, 2007 6:48am AEST

Over the years, governments have slowly restricted the ways that cigarettes can be marketed - so perhaps it's not surprising that new technologies are being brought into the fray.

Although the tobacco companies deny it, one leading anti-smoking academic accuses them of using websites like YouTube to reach a younger client base.

'Smoking equals fun' reads the title of one video.

Another one is called 'Nice day for a girl to have a smoke'.

A simple search on YouTube brings up dozens of items, apparently glamorising cigarettes.

"Here's a cigarette and a lighter which is all we need to perform the trick and see who's gonna win the bet," one video says.

Professor Simon Chapman from Sydney University's School of Public Health says tobacco companies are turning to the web to attract young people.

He says the videos and the online forums do not generally look like ads, but they do promote the idea of smoking.

"People standing around talking about how wonderful it is to smoke, how anti-smoking laws should be disobeyed," he said.

"A lot of soft porn-style messages, the scantily clad women smoking cigarettes and showing how you should hold a cigarette, that sort of thing."

Figures show that smoking amongst young people is at its lowest level since surveys started, at just under 20 per cent of 17-year-olds.

But Professor Chapman is worried that the good work of anti-smoking campaigns could be undone by ambush marketing online.

"You can see how many of these have been watched because they have web counters on them," he said.

"You can see the number of downloads and you can see the number of kids responding to them and saying yeah, wow, great cool, you know go for it, I love smoking, this sort of thing.

"If I were in the tobacco industry I'd be working overtime to make sure those clips are out there in a large variety of ways, and it looks like they're doing that."

The tobacco industry says it is very hard to stop people uploading videos or talking about topics on the internet.

Nerida White from cigarette company Philip Morris says the online videos have nothing to do with the firm's marketing tactics.

"We don't use the web to advertise or promote our products or smoking at all," she said.

"And we don't think people should be able to advertise or promote tobacco on the internet."

Regardless of who is creating the content, there are calls for it to be regulated.

Quit Victoria spokeswoman Suzie Stillman wants the Federal Government to tighten restrictions, to try to bring the internet into line with other forms of media.

"The Commonwealth could look at ways in which internet content hosts and internet service providers could be required to take down or block access to certain material if it contravenes tobacco advertising legislation," she said.

Govt concerned

Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan says she is worried by the reports.

She has announced that the Government will look into the issue, to see if the internet is already covered by current legislation, or if it needs to be updated.

"We may have to actually broaden the definition of publication," she said.

"At the moment it's prohibited if it's in a document, if it appears in a film or a radio program or it's put in a public place. There's some argument about whether it's specific to the internet."

But the internet can also be used for positive messages.

Ms Stillman points out that there are also a number of anti-smoking messages on the web.

"We can promote anti-smoking information. We can promote non-smoking images in the same way as I suppose they're being promoted on the other side," she said.

In fact, one ad that shows mouth cancer as a consequence of smoking has already been viewed more than 150,000 times online.

The anti-smoking lobby has described the new online landscape as the battleground for the lungs of our youth.

And if it's a war that's beginning, the Quit campaign is prepared to fight back.

 

Stupid Tragic Ironies

Stumbled across this over at YouTube. Remember when we had the post Danny Thomas a couple months back. Well here's another smarty paints video on legendary action star Steve McQueen.

Trade Secrets: Don't watch this

Caught this on the boob tube the other night and now its up on the Internet. Just disgraceful the amount of stuff that's on line nowadays.

The information in this video is about what's in a cigarette. It's trade secrets folks and ya shouldn't be watchin' it. I'm postin' it here just to highlight how out of control health types are by exposin' the time held traditions of my industry.

So don't watch it.

And if ya do, lemme tell y'all somethin' before ya get worked up. This IS NOT another good example of why the FDA needs to regulate cigarette makers. We use only the cleanest brooms when we sweep tobacco dust off the floor and reconstitute it into new fresh smooth Liardare Carolina 100's.

It's all very safe and wholesome, take my word fer it.





As a former tobacco executive, you might think I'd feel an affinity to a fellow former leader in big tobacco. Fer the most part that's true but not when it comes to turncoat Jeffery Wigand. Y'all can read more about him here.

Couple years back Wigand became a famous whistle blower by exposin' trade secrets like the ones in that terrible video above. That's like givin' up the Masons secret handshake. Omerta my friend. Ya just don't do stuff like that.

Anywho, his story got made into a movie called the Insider. I didn't see it. What is that gonna tell me that I don't already know?

So don't watch the video and remember we can police ourselves just fine. We don't need no FDA pointy headed jerks tellin' us our business. Trust us, we don't!

I Hate Disney and the answer to smokin' in the youth market

Lemme tell y'all somethin'.

Dinsey ain't nothin' but a bunch of yellow-bellied cowards. How dare they smite the artistic creativity of creative types by not allowin' smokin' in their kiddie cartoons!?! This is just a complete outrage. And lemme tell y'all somethin' else, I ain't takin' this lyin' down.

In case y'all hadn't heard, the House of Mouse made the big announcement that smokin' will be outlawed in all their family type features. Plus, as if that ain't enough, smokin' will be discouraged in all their films from the Touchstone and Miramax brands. Still worse, they'll be featurin' anti-smokin' PSAs on all movies and DVDs where the characters light up. Ya can read the full article here.

The words beyond the pale seem to fit nicely.

Worth notin' that about 10 years ago Disney digitally removed smokin' from some of their old cartoons includin' the Pecos Bill segment in Melody Time. Ya'll can see the before and after photos to the left.

I stole that image off a really good article on the cartoon at 2719 Hyperion. Y'all can view the original post here.

Disney may think they're doin' the right thing but this is actually the complete wrong approach if they want to discourage the youth market...I mean....kids (sorry, old habits die hard) from lightin' up. And, in all sincerity the smokin' version of Pecos Bill is much more appropriate fer today's kids fer two reasons.

First, Pecos Bill is a cowboy. Look at a calendar people, its 2007! What kid wants to be a cowboy today? Maybe some looser kids in Oklahoma or somethin', but cowboys have no Ipods, no Nintendo WII, no Facebook, no MySpace, they work fer a livin' doin' manual labor all day long, and they spend lots of time outdoors.

Name two kids who'd want to be like that guy. I betcha can't.

So if smokin' is sooooo evil, then - by yer logic - ain't havin' a looser like Pecos Bill, puffin' away, a good thing? I mean, kids don't want to be Pecos Bill and Pecos Bill smokes. Logic people, if P then Q.

My second reason is part of a much larger argument.

Hey people, kids smoke. Kids have always smoked, kids are always gonna smoke. The more we try to prevent kids from smokin', the more we try to take it out of the social mainstream, the more attractive we actually make smokin' fer kids. Think about that one health types.

If ya truly want to make smokin' not cool, or hip, or groovy, or whatever they say nowadays, here's the one thing that sure to work.

Teach it in the schools.

I mean it. Its a radical idea but very progressive if y'all think about it. Mandate that kids must spend no less than 45 minutes a day smokin'. Ya can talk about the history of tobacco in the USA so there's social studies, economics and marketin' lessons. There's the chemistry curriculum in teachin' kids all the natural goodness that goes into makin' a smooth tastin' unfiltered product. Ya can replace gym, savin' school districts money(because after smokin' fer 45 minutes the kids won't be able to run anyway). Also, smokin' helps ya keep the weight off, so yer combatin' childhood obesity and reducin' kids risk of many chonic diseases.

This plan would teach kids valuable lessons and improve their long term health.

And fer ya anti-smokin' types, if ya tell kids they have to do somethin' they'll develop a negative attitude toward it right? Well, there y'all go. After being told to smoke in the schools fer say 12 years or so, I'm sure a certain portion of the market...uh....kids will opt not to continue smokin'. This just seems like the more natural way to do things.

Heck, I'm sure my ol' buddies at Liardare would be willin' to make special brands just fer the kiddies like tooty fruity or chocolate or...oh wait that's been done...we'll we'd figure somethin' out fer y'all.

Anyway, that's the best answer I've heard and trust me, after workin' at a tobacco company all those years we spent a lot of time talkin' about kids.

Tobacco Taxes Kill People: Bipartisan Agreement in Congress Calls for More Gang Activity, Increased Attacks on Truckers

In a stunnin' development a bipartisan (that means both Republicans and Democrats) bunch of kooks in Washington, called fer more crime, specifically gang activity and increased attacks on truckers throughout the United States!!!


When will this madness end!?! Ya see, accordin' to the New York Times, theses government lunatics are callin' fer higher tobacco taxes. And I've been doin' some research on tobacco taxes at RJ Reynold's new corporately organized, grassroots movement website called NoCigTax.

Lemme tell ya somethin' boys and girls if you ain't been to nocigtax.com yer missin' some important knowledge. This grassroots effort of well paid volunteers, has put together pack and a half of info on why cigarette taxes are the worst thing since Ebola.

My favorite part is this page which shows y'all in simple terms the top 10 reasons why it's clear tobacco taxes are an idea spawned in hell. Numbers 3 and 8 on the top 10 deal with how cigarette taxes increase crime at home.

Accordin' to the irrefutable suppositions of Reynolds American's marketin' department, there will be more cigarette truck hijackins if tobacco taxes go up. No indication of how much they'll go up, fer example the ratio of holdups per ten cent increase. But, over the years, tobacco company have shown their honesty and I think we can all just take 'em at their word.

Number 8 on the list is basically the same as number 3 - hey cut 'em some slack, it ain't easy comin' up with 10 whole reasons. That one basically says the higher the tobacco taxes ya got the more organized crime ya got.

Taxes make cigarettes more valuable and criminals will want to sell more of them, earnin' them more money. Earnin' more money makes it easier fer them to kill people and steal your car.

Well it doesn't actually say that last part but ya'll can fill in the blanks the same as I can. And again, there's no actual stats listed linkin' crime increases to tobacco taxes but really, who ever heard of a dishonest tobacco company? Joe Camel don't lie.

Ya see people, cigarettes don't kill people. Tobacco taxes do. Why on earth would the government would come out in favor of truck robberies, the mafia, along with the Bloods and the Crypts is beyond me. Haven't these folks seen Goodfellas, or Colors, or Breakin' 2 the Electronic Boogaloo? Crime is bad and it ain't the Government's job to be promotin' it through tobacco taxes. Where's Homeland Security when ya'll need 'em?

One final note. Fortunately, I ain't the only one who musta read Reynolds top 10 list. President Bush has seen the light and accorin' to today's Times will veto the tobacco tax bill. Well thank goodness fer small miracles. Hang tough George, hang tough. And take comfort in knowin' the bigtobaccoblog is 100% behin' ya'll.

Golden Oldie: Make Room Fer The American Tobacco Company

Back in the good old days mom, dad and the youngins could gather round the tele with their frozen TV dinners and settle in fer an evenin' of clean family fun. Clean family fun made possible by the generosity of the good folks at the American Tobacco Company and the like.

That was the old openin' fer Make Room Fer Daddy, a highly popular family comedy from the early days of television...when "marketin' to children" was just an innocent concept on one of our internal memos...not the action line of one of them anti-smokin' PSAs. Ah...a simpler age...and I really miss it.

People seem to like these old cigarette ads. I know I do. They're a great nostalgic stroll down memory lane with a long missed old buddy. A buddy who's been forced from the marketplace by a bunch of pinko commie health nuts.

Of course Danny Thomas went on to be the founder of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. I get nervous whenever somebody get involved with big health but I guess that's okay. Smoked cigars which ain't as good as cigarettes (because we don't make cigars at Liardare, only smooth rich Carolina leaf 100s). Got a picture of him with a stogie here so that's somethin' in his favor. Passed away from a heart attack in 1991.

In a quirky twist of misery, Danny's wife in this clip, Jean Hagen. You might also remember her as the ditsy movie star in Singin' in the Rain. She passed away from throat cancer in 1977.

Of course this where the health goofs will tell ya' that both throat cancer and heart attacks are associated with smokin'. Stupid health jerks with their tragic ironies.