Don't Feed the Sharks

Because they'll just want more. And more and more and more...

Cigarette maker Philip Morris has published an open letter to Hollywood filmmakers asking them not to feature the company's products in movies, the Associated Press reported.

[snip]

But industry critics were not impressed. Stanton Glantz, head of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California at San Francisco, called the move a PR ploy and said that Philip Morris will still benefit from any movie smoking scenes since it sells the brand most favored by teen smokers,
Marlboro.

More here.

List of other things that will be removed from movies, if every interest group trying to "save the children" gets its way:

Alcohol use
Drug use
Obscene words
Nudity
Making fun of religion
Cakes, cookies, chips, ice cream, hamburgers, hotdogs, everything else except carrots
Fast food restaurants in the background
Scenes that take place in drive-through windows
Movies that have the name "White Castle" in them
Movies that have the name "Amsterdam" in them
Car chases
Scenes of people not wearing seat belts
Sex scenes that don't in some way reference condoms
Guns
Saws
Contraptions that kill people
Scenes in which students talk back to teachers, parents, or law enforcement officers
Fat people
People that are "too" thin
Movies where one sports team wins at the end and another loses
Movies portraying black-on-black crime

I think you get the point. Feel free to add to this list. I guess I should consider myself lucky that it's still legal to blog about smoking. By the way, smoke them if you got them.