Smoke screen
I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry about Japan Tobacco’s “smoking manners” ads, which the company has deployed in an attempt to avoid anti-smoking legislation. As The Wall Street Journal said earlier this week:
Japan Tobacco is hoping to keep smoking acceptable in as many places as possible. The ads, which started on a limited scale in 2004, have recently rolled out on a wider basis, including new television spots promoting portable ashtrays. The ads aim to improve smokers’ manners so that smokers and nonsmokers can coexist harmoniously, company officials say.
The campaign includes such only-in-Japan slogans as “I was passing through the crowd carrying a flame. But that’s best left to the Olympic torch runner.” Then there’s the example above, which compares the lingering aroma of tobacco to another unpleasant scent. One can always hope that, if smokers see enough of these ads and actually take them seriously, they may just be tempted to quit, rather than just adhere to JT’s politeness code. After all, if most smokers really “hate other people’s smoke,” as one ad says, the only polite thing to do is to give up the habit.
