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Avatar - The Movie

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Xiaou2:
To spare myself the typing, here are some good replies from other posters:

"And having spent some time in the tobacco industry I am very confident it was sponsored product placement. The tobacco marketers are getting it from all sides - they basically can not advertise at all. It's gone from TV ads and Billboards, to sponsorship of sporting events and fashion shows, to shop signage and currently rests with in-store placement (you'll find cigarettes in sponsored lockable cabinets at eye level behind the cashier - you can tell who sponsored it by which company's brands have the most facings) and product placement (i.e. in movies). Now that they've had to take their big ads off the cabinets and cashier mats etc., the primary strategy these days is create 'pull' from the potential customer base by associating smoking with admirable characters or hero's/heroines. That they would pay extraordinary dollars to place product in a high grossing movie like this, particularly as they're legislated against spending advertising money almost anywhere else is not too hard a concept to grasp. It is naive to believe anything else. Guys as clever as James Cameron could easily create and edgy, authoritative character without the use of cigarettes. No one here is saying it was a bad movie because of the smoking (and simply counting to two doesn't fairly represent the overt focus on it at the start of the movie) they are simply saying it was a shameful sell-out to promote carcinogenics in front of young audiences who are, highly influenced by these tactics. Believe me, we have the statistics to prove it. "



"But what creates the biggest stink in Avatar is the fact that Sigourney Weaver's character smokes. The very first thing we see Weaver do in the movie is come out of hypersleep and demand a cigarette from her lab-lackeys. She smokes liberally in the movie (much as she does in real life, which is no-one's business but her own).

Let me declare outright that I am a smoker. I smoke plenty, and I live in a country (Great Britain) in which the relentless drive to marginalise and ultimately cease the habit of tobacco consumption brings a new and major impediment to us nicotine-lovers on a yearly basis. If you smoke, this is getting to be a very hard country in which to indulge your filthy habit.

That doesn't mean I want anybody else to smoke, and most particularly it doesn't mean that I want smoking represented at all in a teen-oriented movie whose SF scenario makes it not only unnecessary but almost certainly unrealistic. If nothing else, Avatar treats of a futuristic environment where air supply is manufactured in controlled envoronments in an ecosphere that's deadly to humans. I can't recall any SF TV output that has been shortsighted enough to put smoking into space-scenarios since the rugged denizens of UFO used to light up regularly on Moonbase, or any pressurised smoking in SF movies since Alien and Outland.

And I can therefore only come to the conclusion that Hollywood's powerful keep-smoking-in-movies lobbyists have won a major Christmas bonus in getting this unlikely practise into Cameron's vision of the 22nd century."

saint:
Bingo - that's what bothered me the most.

Never mind the smoking, which I'd rather have not had but don't get particularly upset about. It was that she was smoking in an enclosed atmospheric environment. Boggle.

Xiaou2:

 Brilliant Insight?!   Man, you are a few shorts shy of a meltdown.

 A) I did not Retype.  I used Copy / Paste.

 B) There is nothing insightful about it.  Its merely various collections of opinions and
facts that I happen to agree with.

 
 I pretty much care less if someone decides to destroy their own lives and bodies.
But Smoking is different.  It infringes on MY / Others  Health and Comfort.

 Its pretty much like someone jabbing you with a stick.  Is it fair that they like to
jab you with a stick, so you just let them do it to you?   Eff - that.   Or how about
someone forcing you to swallow a pill laced with chemicals and drugs?

 Not only does the smoke get inhaled, (with over 300 various Nasty chemicals / drugs
on top of nicotine...) but you have to deal with the god awful stench that sticks to
your body and clothing.    Just the smell of that crap gives me a near instant headache,
as well as makes me slightly nauseous to boot.

 I had to deal with that Crap as a child, where parents had no problem polluting the
enclosed car / house with us kids having no way to breath unbothered.  I cant wait
for them to get a lung problem / cancer... for all the Intentional suffering they caused me.
Its great just to see how battered their faces are, and how much like  Cave Trolls
they sound like cause they have burned out their skin and vocal cords.


 Smoking is for the Weak.  Its a bunch of druggies who cant handle life and emotions without a constant "Fix".

 Its also for the arrogant / selfish, who dont mind destroying others in the process of their own self chosen degradation.

 Smoking Will become Illegal one day..  and it will be a joyous day...
Much like the day when it became illegal to smoke in public bars / restaurants here.

DaOld Man:

--- Quote from: Xiaou2 on December 29, 2009, 04:35:48 pm ---
 I had to deal with that Crap as a child, where parents had no problem polluting the
enclosed car / house with us kids having no way to breath unbothered.  I cant wait
for them to get a lung problem / cancer... for all the Intentional suffering they caused me.
Its great just to see how battered their faces are, and how much like  Cave Trolls
they sound like cause they have burned out their skin and vocal cords.


--- End quote ---

I grew up in a family where everyone smoked except me, so I know where you are coming from.
But I am taking the above comment as done in anger and not serious.
I watched a brother die with throat cancer, a sister die with lymphatic cancer, and my mother died of lung problems, she basically drowned with fluid on her lungs.
They all suffered terribly for a long time before passing on.
I dont know if smoking had anything to do with it, but Im sure it did.
But I would not wish that kind of death on anyone, especially a loved family member.
Not meaning to beat you up here, but I guess I just want you to realize what you are saying.

Xiaou2:

 Actually I do know what you are coming from... and I still feel the same way.

 Why?

 My mother didnt give two ratts tails about me.  Treated me like dirt.  Always putting
me down and telling me how rotten I was.  Trying to use guilt tactics on me as well.

 My Step father was the same.  Real father didnt smoke, but he is psychotic:
physically and mentally abusive / violent.  He was on the edge of going Postal most
of the time.  Threats of killings, pipe bombs, cutting his kids into pieces...etc.
Selfish, careless, and a compulsive gambler... luckily he was kicked out before I was 6,
as he gambled every dollar the family had away.

 I had no "love" in my family life, besides my distant relatives that we only saw
on holidays.

 My mother was cold as an ice cube, and so that is exactly what see will get
back from me.

 To be honest, Im not so much as angry.. as I dont give two cares in the world
about them.   But hey, I cant help it if Karma makes one feel even a little satisfied.

 Its one thing to Try to quit... and to be respectful of others around you... such as
going outside to smoke... or not smoking in the moving car.   But its quite another
to be so mean and careless as to intentionally poison and hurt your children,
even as they are choking and fighting to simply breath.

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