24th October 2008 :: Smoking... Alcohol... Prejudice... The whole truth
The tobacco and alcohol companies are not allowed to advertise in papers or on TV, you can be sure of protests by women's liberation group if you say or show something that they feel is showing women in bad light. The extreme to this is the ban on the Cadbury Fruity Gems as authorities felt it is implying that eating gems is as good as eating fresh fruit. The health minister Mr. Ramados wants smoking in the movies to stop and he wants Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan to apologise for smoking.
On the other hand, there is no one stopping or raising an objection if things are other way round. You will see ads and programs on the TV where the woman/girl is quite bright or virtuous but the man/boy is a nutcase and a complete villain. Similarly you have advertising against smoking in publications and on prime time TV (in a lot of western countries if not in India as of now) that shows graphics that would give a movie or a show an R or A rating. You can find articles and promotional material suggesting the kind of health issues posed by smoking and alcohol. Some of them true and most of them suspiciously looking like major exaggerations.
Smoking is bad, alcohol in excess is bad and we need to teach the kids about health eating and treating everyone as equal. I also think we need to be objective on all situations and not only when it suits us.
On Mental Floss
God! I hate my job.
You should count yourself lucky that you can get in a foul mood when you get a stupid assignments. The TV reporters have to look happy and genuinely interested even when they are reporting things they hate...read more