I don’t know where to begin with this one. It’s an ad for American Spirit cigarettes made from 100% organic tobacco. How politically incorrect art thou; oh let me count the ways! I suppose I could start with colonialism and the “American Spirit.” Or maybe racial typing and the headdress (which no doubt is trade-marked). Or how about the green-washing and organic tobacco. But instead, let’s pause to consider what the ad is doing in my son’s issue of Popular Science. Where exactly is the science? Maybe it’s in the epidemiology which would tell readers that smoking these things will a) guarantee an addiction, and b) increase the risk of respiratory diseases and death. Maybe it’s in the sustainable growing practices we apply to our carcinogenic substances. More likely the science is in the precision with which the product is marketed. I don’t think it’s coincidental that epidemiology and marketing are so much alike in their practices.
