Tobacco.org

• Clearing air on cigarette ads  

There seem to be two Dr. Alan Blums.

One is a tweedy academic — the family medicine professor and director of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society at the University of Alabama who has devoted his dead-serious career to the prevention of tobacco-induced illnesses.

The other is the self-described “Bart Simpson of the anti-smoking movement” — the alter ago who donned a fake pharmacist’s lab coat Wednesday to help set up “Your Cancer and Drug Store,” an exhibition on tobacco advertising that opens today in the Buffalo Museum of Science. . . .

The approach reflects a lesson learned in 1977 when Blum, then a Miami hospital intern and nascent anti-smoking crusader, lost a contentious radio talk show debate with a tobacco industry spokesman while the host, Larry King, blew smoke in Blum’s face.

Ever since, “I’ve tried to bring some humor and satire to a depressing issue that many people take very seriously,” Blum said. The strategy has included “house calls” to tobacco festivals and “anything else we could do to ridicule the brand names.”

Satirical references abound in “Your Cancer and Drug Store,” which was gleaned from a trove of tobacco advertising and promotional materials that Blum started collecting 15 years ago and now fills 2,500 boxes in his Alabama center.

He started by buying items distributed by cigarette companies that a Connecticut store owner had accumulated over two decades. “He must’ve thought it had collectible value, but it cost more to ship it [to Alabama] than I paid for it,” Blum said.

From the outset his goal was to mount an exhibition that underscored the everyday irony of seeing tobacco products on the shelves of pharmacies that dispense drugs prescribed to combat cancer, heart disease, hypertension and other diseases linked to smoking.

“I wanted to do an over-the-top, walk-through exhibit,” he said, citing the role that drugstores have played in keeping America smoking. “I’m not going after individual pharmacies as much as the chains that own them.” . . .

By touring “Your Cancer and Drug Store,” he said, “you are looking at origins of cancer just as much as you would by looking through a microscope.”

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I wanted to do an over-the-top, walk-through exhibit. I’m not going after individual pharmacies as much as the chains that own them.
Prof. Alan Blum, on his Buffalo, NY, ad exhibit that explores the role that drugstores have played in keeping America smoking.

Your Cancer and Drug Store: One-stop shopping: prescriptions, cigarettes, urgent care and chemo.
Alan Blum's mock-drug store: an exhibition on tobacco advertising that opens today in the Buffalo Museum of Science.

Williamsburg Exhibition Captures Smokers on Camera  

In a city that's banned smoking from bars, restaurants, and is looking at parks, and in a country led by a President who's an alleged closet smoker, it's easy to understand the trepidation that comes with being captured on camera taking a long, smooth drag from a cigarette.

Photographer Susanna Howe found many of her friends would "dash to put the cigarette out when you raise the camera to [their] face" while shooting for "Smokers," (NSFW) her current exhibition at Bird in Williamsburg (203 Grand St).

And many of the "Smokers" photos displayed on Howe's site show subjects enjoying a smoke around decidedly anti-smoking New York City

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• Now Showing | Smoking in the Dressing Room  

Photos by Susanna Howe

The tobacco-stained past, on display at Bird in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

In the wake of our recent mayoral election, let’s take a moment to remember New York before Bloomberg cleared the air in bars, clubs and restaurants by banning smoking. Sales of Febreze aren’t the only thing that plummeted in the city: according to the photographer Susanna Howe, no one wants to be pictured smoking anymore. “Even those people who you wouldn't think would be all squeamish about it dash to put the cigarette out when you raise the camera to your face,” she said.

And so she rushed to document her friends and favorite subjects before they quit. “Smokers,” an exhibition and video installation at Bird in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is a stylish, funny, even sexy look at the remaining few who aren’t waiting to exhale, such as the artist Phil Frost. Be sure to try something on in the V.I.P. dressing room, where Howe has created a video that goes as well with Margiela as it does with A.P.C.

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RICHARDS: Fairbanks guests clear the air with old-time smoke stories 

Most guests are aware of the no-smoking policy prior to making reservations, but occasionally someone arrives who is a smoker. Such was the case for Kim. Kim was a polite smoker and went outside to smoke no matter the time of day, the weather or the smoke from the fires. One morning after breakfast, Kim scooted out for her after-breakfast smoke. She came back inside with a pack of cigarettes in her hand and rejoined the table group for a second cup of what she referred to as “Mary’s brown water.” Along with her cigarettes, Kim liked the spoon to stand up straight in her coffee.

One of the guests at the breakfast table mentioned to Kim that he was a former smoker.

An employee commented about third-hand smoke, which was a new term to me. She explained that third-hand smoke was under discussion as possibly being hazardous to your health. As a new mom up on such things, she said it was the odor or smoke saturation on clothes, car seats, furniture and carpets.

These simple statements led to other guests joining in with their own smoking tales. As those of us know who grew up during the 1960s and the ’70s, not only did everyone smoke but you could smoke anywhere. Even my high school had a smoking rink for students bold enough to use it. I never know where the table talk will lead, but that particular morning it led to amusement for all. . . .

Part of Richard’s training was with a doctor in the emergency room who was a chain smoker. This fellow had a standing order for the staff that when a patient was put on a gurney there should be an ashtray placed between the patient’s legs so he would always have one nearby.

He said the emergency room was well stocked with old beanbag-style ashtrays that would not tip over. Seems the only thing he ever got into trouble for during his ER rotation was removing an ashtray.

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LILEKS: Is it Art? The courts say no, but who makes up these rules? 

The Appeals Court has settled the issue for good with a decision you can sum up thusly: Oh, c'mon.

It's obvious the bar's managers were trying to get around the law, right? They weren't making a grand philosophical point about the nature of Art. They just wanted to let consenting adults light up a nail indoors without standing outside where the winter wind flays faces to the bone. But if they said it's art, well ... isn't it? . . .

But this goes against everything we've been told about Art for the past 50 years. Art is not a matter of conforming to academic rules set down by stern, gray-haired men in frock coats and watch chains; Art is what you say it is. . . .

If the bar folks filmed the event as part of a 19-hour-long video installation, they would have had a better case. If they'd had a grant, even better. But no. Here we are: It's not art if the court says it isn't, and that's the part that ought to rankle.

On the other hand, on behalf of everyone who has paid admission to a gallery only to find big canvases covered in black paint and Lucky Charms -- let the lawsuits begin!

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Protestor hijacks launch of Trafalgar Square plinth art project  

An anti-smoking demonstrator stormed the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square yesterday at the launch of an art project involving thousands of people.

Stuart Holmes, from Withington, Manchester, clambered on to the platform to rail against tobacco minutes before the One & Other project was officially opened.

His banner read: "Save the children. Ban tobacco and actors smoking." He was swiftly removed, allowing the first official "living sculptures" to each enjoy an hour of fame.

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The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use: Executive Summary (PDF) 

The influence of the media and their role in product marketing represent one of the key developments of modern society. Effective advertising and promotion through media channels have created entire categories of human product and service needs beyond basic survival, which, in turn, have fueled the economic growth of communication media that include newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. Today, these media have evolved to become part of a global virtual society linked by channels such as the Internet, text messaging, and interactive gaming. As mass communications have bridged societies around the world, they have also magnified the impact of media on global public health. Over 80% of the more than 1 billion smokers worldwide live in developing countries, and the impact of globalization has led to an increase of more than 250% in cigarette exports from the United States alone in the decade preceding 2002.1,11 Moreover, smoking prevalence in the developing world is rising as prevalence among developed nations continues to decline, with the United Nations projecting a 1.7% net global annual increase between 1998 and 2010. If current trends continue, more than one-half billion of the world’s current inhabitants are predicted to lose their lives to tobacco use,12,13 underscoring the urgency of examining the media’s role in global tobacco marketing.

At the same time, the media have an equally powerful role in infl uencing individuals and policymakers and have made critical contributions to the cause of tobacco control. Media channels hold the power to frame conceptual models, infl uence the evolution of these models in the public’s perceptions, and ultimately guide these perceptions toward the implementation of policy.14 Tobacco control interventions have been inherently intertwined with the media, ranging from the antitobacco public service announcements broadcast on television under the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Fairness Doctrine in the late 1960s15,16 to the advertising restrictions of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement and the advertising restrictions contained in the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.17 Annual adult per capita cigarette consumption in the United States has declined from its peak level of 4,345 cigarettes in 1963 to a preliminary estimate of 1,654 in 2006,18,19 a process that started with the media publicity surrounding the 1964 Surgeon General’s report and continues through today’s media advocacy efforts on behalf of tobacco control.

Despite these successes, tobacco use still accounts for nearly one-third of cancer deaths worldwide. As a result of growing international tobacco use, WHO predicts that deaths caused by tobacco will increase to 6.4 million per year by 2015, representing 10% of all deaths worldwide.10,20 These trends, combined with the interrelationships between tobacco and media, mean that it is critical to understand how exposure to media influences tobacco use and to explore ways to effectively leverage the media to improve the overall state of public health.

This Executive Summary provides a framework for understanding the relationship between tobacco and the media, methodological issues in researching media- related issues in tobacco, and an overview and summary of the specific areas addressed in the monograph. Subsequent sections present the conclusions of individual chapters, followed by the major conclusions of the volume.

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Monograph 19: The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use 

The National Cancer Institute presents this 19th monograph in the Tobacco Control Monograph Series, The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use. Monograph 19 provides a critical, scientific review and synthesis of the current evidence regarding the power of the media, both to encourage and to discourage tobacco use. It is the most current and comprehensive summary of the scientific literature on media communication in tobacco promotion and tobacco control. Research included in the review comes from the disciplines of marketing, psychology, communication, statistics, epidemiology, and public health. All are vital to understanding how exposure to the media influences tobacco use.

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Philip Morris Money 

In Virginia, fresh-faced, environmentally minded schoolchildren gather biological samples and test water quality in rivers and waterways, part of the Izaak Walton League's Save Our Streams initiative. In Chicago, amid Tai Chi classes and body massages, families with young children enjoy performance art and teenagers flock to an all-night "rave," all part of the Museum of Contemporary Art's Summer Solstice weekend. In Minnesota hundreds of children with HIV or AIDS come together each year at Camp Heartland, where they can "escape the isolation and misunderstanding they so often face because of this illness." And all of these kids can thank the caring people at Philip Morris.

It might raise eyebrows that children and youth engage in otherwise worthwhile activities while carrying brochures and leaflets bearing the Philip Morris logo, but these and scores of other programs--ranging from battered women's shelters to disaster relief programs to scholarships for African-American students at black colleges--are important parts of an aggressive public relations campaign by the world's largest maker of cigarettes. During 1999 Philip Morris spent more than $60 million on things like hunger relief, domestic violence programs, and support of the fine arts, including some of the nation's leading museums and dance companies. Though the company has used its tobacco profits to support charitable and educational works for decades, what's new now is that its $60-million corporate giving program is suddenly being dwarfed by a $100-million-a-year image-rebuilding campaign launched last fall, which spotlights the company's goodwill efforts. Leading the way are Philip Morris-sponsored television commercials touting the firm's good deeds, under the slogan: "Working to make a difference. The people of Philip Morris." In the ads, actors play ordinary Americans engaged in volunteer teaching and assisting victims of floods. . . .

They've lavishly funded political allies, ranging from conservative think tanks like the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Washington Legal Foundation, and the Progress & Freedom Foundation to liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union. They've sponsored sports events, from airy Virginia Slims tennis tournaments to gritty NASCAR races. . . .

"They're buying silence," says Douglas. "For years, the health community, in its effort to combat tobacco, has sought the buy-in of many affected communities and has had great difficulty enlisting their support." Citing Philip Morris contributions over the years to groups like the NAACP, the Urban League, the National Organization for Women, the National Council of La Raza, and many others, Douglas says, "Many of them were either silent or provided testimony to Congress opposing tobacco-control legislation."

Further, Philip Morris's charitable giving is skewed significantly toward groups that represent parts of the population specifically targeted by cigarette marketers, especially women and minorities. . . .

In 1999, for instance, Philip Morris provided major support to the Dance Theater of Harlem and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as well as to the United Negro College Fund, the American Indian College Fund, and the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund. . . .

For decades the company has provided substantial support to leading institutions like New York's Whitney Museum of American Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. . . .

Over the years, the company has funneled millions of dollars to icons of the New York cultural establishment, including the Lincoln Center--which in the 1980s handed out cigarettes in bags of favors to patrons--the Joffrey Ballet, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the American Ballet Theater, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, among others. . . .

That's not to say that there's no controversy over the company's donations. Case in point: Philip Morris's support for battered women's shelters, lately one of its highest-profile campaigns. Together with the National Network to End Domestic Violence, Philip Morris created a program called Doors of Hope. . . .

That worries Rita Smith, executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, another major player in the movement. Last year the coalition's board of directors voted not to participate in Philip Morris's domestic violence program. . . .

Tom Metzger, spokesman for the National AIDS Fund, uses that argument to defend his organization's partnership with Philip Morris in a program called Positive Helpings, which provides nourishing food to people with AIDS. Citing the fact that Philip Morris's Kraft subsidiary produces foods, Metzger says, "Nothing's more benign than Jell-O. When you look at any multinational, you will find critics of something they produce." . . .

And despite the long odds, it's not impossible that Philip Morris's campaign could succeed in restoring a modicum of acceptance for the company--or at least help it survive until the industry can secure a stronger market position in Russia, China, and the developing countries.

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'Controversies' in Paris - When a Picture Is Worth a Thousand Debates 

All this is the familiarly messy, philosophical heart of photography, and it’s also the subject of a show that just closed here, itself a mess. “Controversies: A Legal and Ethical History of Photography” was organized by Christian Pirker and Daniel Girardin, a lawyer and a curator from Switzerland, where the exhibition originated. Louvre-length, two-hour lines daily snaked out the door of the Bibliothèque Nationale here until the end of last month. (The show moves on to South America.) Inside, scrums of visitors clustered before 80 or so pictures, more or less famous troublemakers, spanning the era of the daguerreotype through Abu Ghraib. . . .

A mess, as I said. But willy-nilly, some big questions arose. The biggest, as Mr. Girardin ventured by telephone the other day, was, “What is possible to show in a photograph?” He elaborated: “What does society accept or refuse? Why are some pictures shown over and over, and then they suddenly become unacceptable?”

In that case he was alluding to a portrait by Boris Lipnitzki from 1946, not a remarkable photograph but a curious case. Jean-Paul Sartre leans over the footlights at the Théâtre Antoine, pinching the remains of a smoldering cigarette between his fingers. This is the picture that in 2005 the Bibliothèque Nationale doctored for the cover of a catalog for a Sartre exhibition. The library expunged the cigarette. Nearly a decade earlier French postal authorities, as part of a national anti-smoking campaign, issued a stamp based on a famous snapshot by Gisèle Freund of André Malraux, tousled, perennial cigarette between lips. Authorities guillotined the cigarette.

That rightly burned French critics who decried — this was the French equivalent of freedom fries, you might say — what they called American-style political correctness, notwithstanding that the history of photography is rife with subterfuges concocted in the name of some greater social good, American and otherwise.

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And the winners are... the Imperial Tobacco Canada Foundation supports eleven leading Canadian arts organizations 

From a musical based on the story of a shipwreck survivor in Newfoundland to a new Canadian opera, and from a morality play acted on horse-drawn wagons in British Columbia to an innovative Montreal photography festival, the Imperial Tobacco Canada Foundation is delighted to announce the winners of its two inaugural arts donations programs, New Creation in the Arts and the Arts Achievement Award.

The prestigious Arts Achievement Award winner is LE MOIS DE LA PHOTO A MONTREAL, an international biennale of contemporary photography mounted in multiple Montreal public spaces, galleries and artist-run centres. This month long celebration includes educational and curatorial programming, keynote lectures and exhibitions. LE MOIS DE LA PHOTO A MONTREAL attracts visitors and artists from around the world and garners international attention. . . .

- OIL AND WATER, Artistic Fraud, St. John's, Newfoundland. A new musical theatre piece by writer Robert Chafe, composer Andrew Craig and Siminovitch winner, director Jillian Keiley. . . .

- LOCK DANSEURS, La La La Human Steps, Montreal. A new creation by Edouard Lock . . .

- CREATION 2010: O Vertigo Danse Inc., Montreal. Ginette Laurin is one of Canada's most innovative choreographers. . . . '

- DOULEUR EXQUISE, Sibyllines, Montreal. A new work by Siminovitch winner Brigitte Haentjens . . .

- THE MINES OF VENUS, Arraymusic, Toronto. . . .

- SEVEN STRANDS OF SOUND, Ottawa Jazz Festival, Ontario. A diverse group of seven Canadian composers . . .

- CANASIAN DANCE FESTIVAL, Toronto. Three outstanding Asian dance artist/companies will create site specific works . . .

- THE INVENTOR, Calgary Opera Association, Alberta. A new Canadian opera by Bramwell Tovey with libretto by John Murrell. . . .

- EVERYONE: A MODERN MORAILITY PLAY IN SEVEN HORSE-DRAWN ACTS, Caravan Farm Theatre, Armstrong, British Columbia. . . .

- OUGHT APARTMENT, Vancouver Art Gallery Association, British Columbia. Using recycled and reclaimed materials in the blending of visual arts and architecture, artist Reece Terris will install a six-story apartment building in the rotunda of the gallery, noting the enduring nature of material culture.

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影视“清屏”运动连连发力 

一周来，荧屏“清屏举措”连连———继央视传出消息，广电总局将禁播所有30集以上剧集以预防“注水影视”后，5月31日，中国消费者协会乘世界无烟日之际，特别呼吁整顿“烟草影视”，减少吸烟镜头。

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中消协呼吁整顿“烟草影视” 全面“禁烟”有难度 

《英雄本色》中周润发饰演的小马哥叼着烟的帅酷模样，迷倒了众多观众，但这种吸烟镜头也给很多年轻人带来负面影响。在世界无烟日和“六一”儿童节到来之际，中国消费者协会日前特别呼吁整顿“烟草影视”，减少吸烟镜头。

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• Simpsons in smoking scandal  

D'oh! The Simpsons could be encouraging another generation of young people to take up smoking.

One of the most popular television shows in history contains a "large number" of tobacco-related scenes, say researchers who watched 400 episodes of the cartoon for science.

"We recorded 795 instances of smoking or references to smoking," says Dr Guy Eslick, a fellow of the International Union Against Cancer and honorary associate of the University of Sydney's School of Public Health.

"The most notable characters who smoked were Marge Simpson's sisters Patty and Selma, Krusty the Clown and Bart's school teacher Mrs Krabappel."

Dr Eslick assessed the first 18 seasons of the program and found the number of smoking references per season ranged from just over 10 to more than 60.

Smoking was presented in a "positive way" in just two percent of these cases, in a negative way in 35 percent of cases and neutrally in 63 percent. . . .

"Even instances of smoking being reflected in a negative way, particularly among young characters, could have an impact on promoting children to smoke cigarettes," Dr Eslick said.

The study concludes: "Viewing The Simpsons characters smoking may prompt children to consider smoking at an early age".

The research is to be published in the Medical Journal of Australia, and today (Sunday) is World No Tobacco Day.

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AND THE WINNERS ARE… THE IMPERIAL TOBACCO CANADA FOUNDATION SUPPORTS ELEVEN LEADING CANADIAN ARTS ORGANIZATIONS (PDF) 

From a musical based on the story of a shipwreck survivor in Newfoundland to a new Canadian opera, and from a morality play acted on horse-drawn wagons in British Columbia to an innovative Montreal photography festival, the Imperial Tobacco Canada Foundation is delighted to announce the winners of its two inaugural arts donations programs, New Creation in the Arts and the Arts Achievement Award.

The prestigious Arts Achievement Award winner is LE MOIS DE LA PHOTO À MONTRÉAL, an international biennale of contemporary photography mounted in multiple Montreal public spaces, galleries and artist-run centres. This month long celebration includes educational and curatorial programming, keynote lectures and exhibitions. LE MOIS DE LA PHOTO À MONTRÉAL attracts visitors and artists from around the world and garners international attention.

“LE MOIS DE LA PHOTO À MONTRÉAL is an extraordinary achievement which reaches sustained excellence at all levels, especially in its strong creative focus and outstanding curatorial skills,” said Benjamin Kemball, president and CEO of Imperial Tobacco Canada and chair of the board of the Imperial Tobacco Canada Foundation. . . .

The ten winners of the New Creation in the Arts are: