To be honest I can't imagine the Marlboro man undergoing chemo for lung cancer. Or standing outside a bar smoking in the cold with all the middle aged office workers.
What I'm trying to say is that he's a pretty two dimensional fictional character. I don't think we bother to fill in any details beyond the few that he signifies: freedom, smoking, epic marketing triumph and whatnot.
Exactly! That's probably why people don't sell chemo treatments or smoking regulations by talking about cowboys.
What I'm saying is that people smoke to be someone, and very few people want to be the person who smokes these. I guess if they invest as much in branding as Phillip Morris did, they can change that. But it's probably not worth it.
No, people do not smoke 'to be someone'. That's a wild generalization. It may well have something to do with why people start smoking, but very little to do with why people keep smoking. I smoke, but frankly I'm embarrassed about it because my reason for doing so is purely addictive. I find this especially ironic considering that I have used most illegal drugs but have never had any serious difficulty when I decided to quit doing so. I'm thinking about the e-cigarette thing because it offers a viable harm reduction option more likely to result in a permaquit.
It's probably something for people rationalizing their brain's begging for nicotine to latch onto, though. Same with, "...but if I quit smoking, I'll gain weight!"
Like people struggling with alcohol reminding themselves that red wine is good for their heart, as long as they stop after one glass.
I don't know. Nicotine is an ugly addiction that I read somewhere is almost as strong as crack. And crackheads don't seem to need any rationalization for what they do other than the high. I think the same mechanism, for most smokers, is at work here, given the power of the habit.
Well, part of it is that cigarettes are ubiquitous in many places, and considerably more socially acceptable than crack. I don't smoke, but I know people who have had to completely avoid bars and coffeehouses for months at a time because they associated them with smoking.
What I'm trying to say is that he's a pretty two dimensional fictional character. I don't think we bother to fill in any details beyond the few that he signifies: freedom, smoking, epic marketing triumph and whatnot.