Thank you for smoking

Every profession has its own list of favourite films where the main character comes from that profession. PR people also have a must-see list of movies.

The "classic" films that every PR professional would name include Wagg the Dog or West Wing, the TV series. They show how powerful and important - and sometimes glamorous - the PR profession (spin-doctors!) may be. I'd like to name one film that showed a PR officer as a very smart guy. The movie is called Thank You for Smoking.

The main character, a family man, is a spokesman for a major tobacco corporation. As you may imagine he faces the dilemma of personal and professional duties. He seeks to raise his son into a good man but he must also be loyal to his (evil!) employer, the tobacco company. Facing a cancer-ridden teenager in a wheelchair or an aggressive mother activist on a live TV show is peanuts to him. The show ends in his favour and not in those who are supposedly victims of tobacco conglomerates. The biggest challenge is to face a room full of his son's classmates at school...

The school has this bring-your-father-to-school-to-tell-about-his-job tradition. The PR guy's son is too embarrassed to invite his father to school to tell about his "tobacco advocacy" job in front of the boy's peers. However, one day it's his turn to bring his father and the poor boy asks his father to do this parental duty...

The PR guy takes his both responsibilities - to his family and his employer - very seriously. So he does go to school to talk about his job to his son's classmates...

When it's time for a questions & answers session, one school-boy raises his hand and shoots a straightforward question: "My Mom says smoking kills people. How can you work for such a company?"

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, the PR man starts:
- Tell me, young man, is your Mom a doctor?
- No,- replies the boy.
- Is she a medical scientist?
- No.
- Well, boys and girls, here's a lesson for you all: always trust only a reliable source of information!

The PR guy is a responsible person. And he does his best to make his son proud of him. He made me proud of him too. Because he dealt with tough situations smartly and because we're in the same - PR - business.

Thank you for smoking. Roma, September 2006. Photo by Erlendas G.