Re: virus: Cigarettes

Richard (Drahcir@tripod.net)
Fri, 08 Aug 1997 09:13:34 +0100


Gifford, Nate F wrote:

> <the lovely AND talented> Eva-Lise Carlstrom said:
> Yup. I am desperately trying to remember where I read about a study where
> somebody interviewed a bunch of smokers of various brands of cigarettes,
> and asked them why they smoke the brand they do. They tended to say it
> was because that brand tasted best, but they used the phraseology of their
> particular brands' ads in doing so.
>
> Nate says:
> Taste is the advertising codeword for nicotine. The more nicotine in a
> cig. the better it tastes. Once you've broken this code you can see why
> smoker's use the advertising rhetoric ... noone gives them correct words.
> For instance I smoke Merits ... because they have the best tar to nicotine
> ratio I've found.

What about people who smoke brands which aren't advertised? For
example, there are this brand of Cigarettes called "Chess" over here in
England, and I've only ever seen them on sale in one shop, and I've
never seen them advertised. Presumably people smoke them, else they'd
have gone out of business, so how do people end up smoking them
(expecially as they are really rough on the throat!). I smoke Silk Cut
Ultra Lights because they have the lowest nicotine /and/ tar content. I
don't think I've ever seen them advertised.

It baffled me for ages as to how cigarette companies could risk making
low tar/nicotine cigarettes since surely people who would smoke them
would be quitting. I toyed with the idea that there was something else
that was addictive in them, and then it dawned on me the other day:
Smoking is generally viewed by a lot of people today as being a nasty
habit, and the pressure is on to quit. Cigarette companies know that
people who have to try to quit are addicted not only to nicotine, but to
the very act of smoking (I know that I am). Hence, selling low
nicotine/tar cigarettes attracts a huge market of people who aren't
actually going to quit, but are going to smoke lights for a long time,
the reasons being: They're addicted to smoking (as in the act of it)
and not necessarily nicotine, they don't care about smoking being
anti-social, they're more concerned about living a bit longer, and with
less tar, that might happen!

> Nate said:
> I would like to see the results of an attempted correlation between the
> levels of nicotine and the degree that autonomy is sold with the
> cigarettes. I think a lot of the recent discussion on this thread ignores
> the fact that cigarettes do make you feel good.

Not all the time. 8:30 am with a hangover and a carpet tongue, and
people still smoke!!! Why?!?!?! I do it, and each time I wonder why.

-- 
                  Drakir
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