>I was referring to the attempts by the industry to explain away the large
>amount of money spent on advertising and on lobbying by saying that it has
>no effect! I am not aware of their sophisticated reply to this question,
>beyond a claim that they are maintaining market share.
The tobacco industry's argument is, as Chris says, that there is a given market for cigarettes, and advertising is about the competition between firms for that share.
The radical left argument is that advertising creates the market, because of the way that the smoking discourse interpolates the smoking subject, as Althusser would say.
But if you wanted to construct a Marxist argument about why people smoke (quite why is a question in itself) you would have to look instead at the quality of their lives. The reason smoking increases down the social scale is simple enough. To want to forego the immediate pleasure for a longer life, you have to value your life. Unemployed single mothers smoke because they are amongst the lowest incomed. All kinds of drugs have developed alongside peoples' real needs in a modern capitalist economy. Alcohol and tobacco dull the pain of wage slavery, just as Heroin and dope fill the gaps of not working.
Chris is tilting at windmills when he tries to change the habits that only reflect people's real existence. He singles out the 'tobacco capitalist' when he ought to consider the conditions that make the tobacco capitalist a success. And despite protestations against moralising, that can be the only consequence of singling out this one particular vice. Why deny people the solace of a cigarette or a drink?
Chris wants to analyse the class forces at work. I say the class force at work is anti-working class hatred, cloaked as a hatred of the habits of the working class. This is what powers the endless moralising of the health council. This is what led employers like Derbyshire Council to impose a ban on smokers. Victimising employees for their smoking is a way of employers and the state to avoid responsibility for their health- care. -- Jim heartfield