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imomusI like the anti-smoking poster campaign currently being run on JR trains in Japan. It's a pretty virulent and imaginative attack on the insensitivity of smokers towards the people around them.
But why does the Health Authority financing the campaign sign off with the slogan 'Meet your delight'? Hang on, this is not an anti-smoking campaign. It's an advertising campaign paid for by Japan Tobacco. I can only assume it's a desperate attempt by the Japanese tobacco industry to demonstrate responsibility and make the case for self-regulation. Except that if you look at what the ads are saying, it's all about proposing a new etiquette of smoking in which it's up to the individual smoker to regulate himself.
I suppose, given the choice between doing the honourable thing -- committing seppuku -- and letting the customer die on their behalf, Japan Tobacco is opting for the customer's death. As long as he realizes that it's up to him to clear up his entrails afterwards in a responsible manner.
But why does the Health Authority financing the campaign sign off with the slogan 'Meet your delight'? Hang on, this is not an anti-smoking campaign. It's an advertising campaign paid for by Japan Tobacco. I can only assume it's a desperate attempt by the Japanese tobacco industry to demonstrate responsibility and make the case for self-regulation. Except that if you look at what the ads are saying, it's all about proposing a new etiquette of smoking in which it's up to the individual smoker to regulate himself.
I suppose, given the choice between doing the honourable thing -- committing seppuku -- and letting the customer die on their behalf, Japan Tobacco is opting for the customer's death. As long as he realizes that it's up to him to clear up his entrails afterwards in a responsible manner.
Re: tobacco = death in japan
Date: 2004-08-11 11:47 pm (UTC)The Health Ministry has been pushing for a more active
role by the government in alerting the population of the
dangers of smoking (have a browse through the statistics
at the link above). Their attempts are thwarted by the
powerful Ministry of Finance, which gets a lot of it's
revenues from, guess where, JT.
A friend teaching at a medical college in Osaka told me
that some years ago, a few of his colleagues subscribed to a
theory that Japanese were immune to AIDS because of racial
differences in blood types.
An even further-out folk theory I heard from a young woman
in a gaijin bar once: Japanese are protected from AIDS by
all the cigarettes they smoke.