Tobacco Companies Don't Deserve one Bruise

Source from:  Montana Kaimin Story by By Trevon Milliard, Sept. 24, 2008 09/27/2008

In one commercial put out by theTruth.com, a dozen people pile body bags at the foot of a tobacco company's skyscraper. A man from the group looks up at the tall building and says into a megaphone, "We're going to leave this here for you so you can see what 1,200 people actually look like." This is how many people die from tobacco-related illnesses every day. TheTruth.com has created other commercials − one has a man talking through a hole in his neck − to peg these tobacco companies as murderers. But they're not, and this man with the hole in his neck is not a helpless victim. A tobacco executive in an Armani suit doesn't push lit cigarettes into a person's mouth every day for 30 years. Smokers willingly do that to themselves, knowing full well every time they take a deep, long drag that it will eventually kill them. It's a choice. And these days no one can sanely claim that tobacco companies keep the public in the dark about the effects of smoking and chewing. It causes cancer. It will kill you. Everyone knows that. Every pack of smokes has a warning plastered on it declaring just that. Get over your hatred of tobacco companies. They're just selling a product. Just because someone sells a product doesn't mean you have to buy it. Tobacco companies are no different from alcohol companies like Anheuser–Busch, which also sells a drug. No one points a finger at alcohol manufacturers for people dying of liver disease, but tobacco companies have been getting hammered for decades. In 1970, tobacco companies were banned from advertising on television and radio, but sleek Skyy Vodka ads and clever Budweiser ads have free reign. Tobacco companies are taking many more punches than they deserve. In fact, they don't deserve a bruise. Their ads should be allowed on air, and they should be left alone. TheTruth.com has no right or reason to spit in the industry's faces. Instead, they should tell these "1,200 people a day" to wake up every day, walk into the bathroom, stand in front of the mirror and spit in their own faces, where it is due (before they die). Maybe then something can actually change. Yelling at a skyscraper is just stupid and pointless. Enditem