A comment from “alibhai” …
Don’t be very surprised as this is a text book PR stunt from the tobacco industry. They were doing all these things in the USA for a long time before the recent wave of lawsuits. Now they have taken the game to a new level. The industry is running two lines of ads. On the tele they run ads advising against juvenile smoking and warning about the cancerous effects of smoking. Going even as far as admiting that light smokes are just as bad as regular 100s. In print, they run ads in young adult publications depicting smoking as glamarous, sexy, and adventurous. Vile as it may seem to some it does work. Just a couple of days ago a female friend commented how some guys looked so sexy when smoking. Well go ahead and kiss the smoke stack … well there is an ad for the anti smoking establishment.
But lets be rational just as lawyers have to protect their client and doctors have to save all bodies. You have to do your job. You can not make value judgements about your clients if you really want to be successful. Just spin it and sell.
My response …
Rage is not a synonym for surprise and I don’t walk around with blinkers on. After BigTobacco came BigFood and now, Walmart runs a parallel government. Of course all of this works. The American public has been a victim of the SuperBowl, Friends, and the local editions of CNN and Fox News for so long now that everything flies. Your female friend probably walks around in army fatigues cause they’re “oh so cool”.
Your understanding and vision of success is extremely limited … profit and growth at any cost. If the world was made up only of people who toed the line, women all over the world would have still been in kitchens and African Americans would have still been sitting in the back of the bus. Caring about things other than success is not harmful for your health. Watch “In the Time of the Butterflies” for a powerful example of how a tiny group of rebels sacrificed everything to free the Dominican Republic from the grip of the tyrannical dictator, General Rafael Trujillo.
Today, people everywhere seem to have lost the will to make a difference. No one believes in the power of one. No one desires change so badly that they are willing to make a sacrifice. In Pakistan, our little elite group has access to US education, generators when there’s no electricity, tankers when there’s no water, corrupt officials when papers need to be signed, Pepsi when they want “more”, gold sponsored by ARY, sushi at Fujiyama, Havana Cigars at Boat Basin … A job at Citibank, lunch at Okra, beer at the Korean, Nike shoes for weekends at the Yacht Club … Why give a damn about all that’s wrong in the world? It’s so much easier to consume, stay quiet and do one’s job.
I’m no saint and am certainly not willing to give up my sexy Apple laptop. But taking a stand is as important as doing my job.
