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For a great satire on public relations, hire or buy the DVD of ‘Thank You for Smoking’.
Based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Buckley, published in 1994, it tells the story of Nick Naylor, a tobacco lobbyist during the 1990s.
Naylor is the chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, a tobacco industry lobbying firm that promotes the benefits of cigarettes. He utilizes high-profile media events including appearances on television shows you will recognise and an intentionally provocative rhetoric in order to highlight what his clients view as the unfair crusade against tobacco and nicotine products.
The political satire is heightened by Naylor’s informal association with lobbyists from other industries that are subjected to routine vilification in the media such as Polly Bailey, a lobbyist for the alcoholic drinks industry and Bobby Jay Bliss, who represents the firearms industry. They all get together as the M.O.D. Squad, a reference to the title of a police drama, although in this case, “MOD” stands for “Merchants Of Death.”
A pivotal point in the plot occurs when Naylor is kidnapped by a clandestine group who attempt to kill him by covering him with nicotine patches. The search for the perpetrators of the crime leads to some surprising results.
While the characters in the movie are essentially the same, the plot differs in some significant ways. Most noticeably, Naylor’s relationship with his son is given a more prominent role, and the kidnapping conspiracy is downplayed.
The title is based of course on the popular saying “Thank You for Not Smoking,” and the cover of the DVD case is modelled on a cigarette packet.
Whatever you think of the tobacco industry, “merchants of death” or an industry carrying out a perfectly legal trade that provides significant revenue to the exchequer and employs tens of thousands of people, this film and the book is both very funny and poses some good philosophical and thought provoking questions on many aspects of public relations.
How do you answer the difficult questions and what do you do when there is a powerful lobby against what you doing eg coal fired power stations, gas guzzling cars etc!
Should be compulsory reading and watching for all public relations executives!