Do I Smell Cigarette Ads on YouTube?

Simon Chapman, Ph.D., a global authority on tobacco marketing at the University of Sydney, Australia School of Public Health, has accused cigarette manufacturers of carrying on a below-the-radar advertising campaign by flooding the Internet web site You Tube with thousands of videos showing sexy, smoking teens. Chapman notes that the vast majority of clips show young women partying, talking or assuming seductive poses while smoking. You Tube's anonymity provides the perfect cover for companies wanting to access a young audience, and it's free advertising--possibly an irresistible combination for tobacco companies, which are increasingly constrained from utilizing more traditional advertising avenues. Professor Chapman has a federal grant to investigate the matter. Tobacco advertising has been banned in Australia since 1992.

Comments

YouTube ? To me this tube looks like an MRI scanner...

Alexander Litvinenko's poisoning with Polonium 210 led to new series of articles on the presence of this radioactive component in cigarettes, including this interesting "Puffing on Polonium" by Professor Robert N. Proctor in The New York Times on December the 1st, 2006 (also in the International Herald Tribune*).

As early as in 1968, the American Tobacco Company "found that smokers inhale an average of about 0.04 picocuries of polonium 210 per cigarette".... which may now sound very spicy (even if Curie is involved), but means "Pack-and-a-half smokers are dosed to the tune of about 300 chest X-rays". So after all, YouTube's videos didn't kill the radio stars.

Talking about this spy's death, I think it could mean the invention of the "dirty murder" by Putin. Just like "dirty bombs" leave nasty traces compared to your usual no nonsensical "clean bomb", this Death of a former KGB Salesman represents a major disruption just a few weeks after the classic in your face shooting of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

From Magnum .57 to Polonium 210...

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Stephane MOT -
http://e-blogules.blogspot.com

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* on IHT : http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/01/opinion/edproctor.php