Puppet On A String

 

The last thing that tobacco companies need is any more bad publicity. The government requires them to place health warnings on all cigarette packages.  They're limited as to where they can advertise and the sale of their products is strictly regulated and monitored. Every year more areas become smoke-free and the number of designated smoking areas decrease in number.
Public pressure aside, manufacturers don't want smoking to become even more inconvenient than it already is.  Public awareness would banish the carefree days when smokers could light up and smoke, then simply flick the butt, walk away and forget about it.  A formerly enjoyable past time would now include a personal obligation.  Education would force smokers to obtain and carry a personal ashtray at all times, and police would be expected to enforce anti-littering laws.  Some organizations like PRWatchDog have suggested that tobacco companies may have found a way to hide these facts from the public for as long as possible.  How?
They contribute large sums of money to environmental organizations like 'Keep America Beautiful' who are then obligated to give back a little in return for that financial support.  Such as not printing articles divulging how much money it costs every year to clean up cigarette butts.  Keeping quiet about butts poisoning the environment and killing animals, fish and birds.  Omit photos of butts floating in lakes and washing up on beaches.  Tobacco companies want to leave the smokers in blissful ignorance, and not bring attention to cigarette litter.  Other products like soda and beer have messages printed on their bottles and cans to remind the consumer to dispose of them in trash containers.  They ask us to recycle and not to litter.  Cigarettes carry no such messages or advice.  In fact, cigarette papers are not made from any recycled materials at all, and the packages and cellophane that they are wrapped in will NEVER disintegrate.  Phillip Morris has recently agreed to put a public service message on a few "selected" brands, but only for a limited time.

Let's recap what we already know...
Cigarette manufacturers produce a product where they PROFIT at the expense of the health and the very lives of their consumers.
They make it even more addicting by adding other chemicals to help make sure that the consumer will not be able to stop using the product in the future.
They blatantly refuse to manufacture the product using recycled goods, and continue to package the product in materials that are known to harm the environment.
Then they do everything in their power to keep those facts from the consumer so that he or she cannot make an informed decision.
And even worse, those same companies become major financial contributors to any and all organizations designed to decrease or at least curtail the pollution caused by their products, in an effort to undermine any degree of success that might interfere with their profits.


How arrogant is THAT?

(I'm not  finished yet...)