Cigarettes in films: Smoked out – The Economist
The world was our oyster. We were appreciated. We were desired. We were indispensable to the limelight. We had airplanes set aside just for us. In restaurants, we had whole sections reserved just for us. We were accommodated everywhere we went. Others were obliged to live according to parameters we set for the world. We dictated the pace. And the reason? The reason was simple. The reason rested between our index and middle finger. In our hands we held a passport for cool. Between our fingers lied a conversation piece, a magnet for the influential and successful. Our ranks included cowboys, doctors and even Santa Claus hopped on the bandwagon. Life was comfortable at the top. Unfortunately for the most fortunate among us, all good things are doomed to a premature end.
Somewhere along the way, we became the enemy. The fact is, they turned on us, plain and simple. They attacked our reason for being. They attacked our character. The propaganda was methodical, and ruthless. Our eradication was proclaimed, suggesting we would inevitably self-destruct. As our ranks started thinning out, doctors suddenly wouldn’t come down from their moral high-horse. Cowboys could no longer afford being caught fraternizing with the likes of low-lives. Santa no longer had the ‘heart’ for us to remain friends. Just when we thought things could not get any bleaker, they sealed our fate by proclaiming our ‘habit’ was contagious. We were excommunicated from the very places that used to depend on us to define their identities. Bars, restaurants and conference rooms no longer wanted anything to do with us. The mighty had indeed fallen.
You may yet still catch a glimpse of our endangered kind. We now find refuge where we may, congregate where we are still able. Where once we ambled confidently on red carpets and elite socialite functions, we now cower like the castaways that they have forced us to become, reproach branded on our faces, on damp city sidewalks huddling for warmth, stealthily bent over the slightest crack of a window trying our best to remain concealed, or in a seedy alleyway, our frozen fingertips begging for respite, like angry hoodlums wondering when the good times shall once again be rolling. Many cast looks of disgust or even pity in our direction, and it is difficult to blame them. We are shadows of our former selves, and yet Government makes more and more money on our backs as the years pass, taxes and lobbyist bribes much obliged. One can only wonder how worse things can get. For now though, at least we still have Don Draper.
Note-worthy: “Although smokers trying to quit are advised to avoid other smokers, and to remove smoking-related paraphernalia from their homes, it might not occur to them to avoid films in which smoking is depicted.”
[UPDATE – 03/03/2011] A Smoking Ban Goes Too Far – NYTimes – It’s getting worse!
Le Razor's Edge 