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SMOKING AND THE MEDIA Firstly
I'd like to thank Colm Mooney for his kind comments on our Noticeboard.
Incidentally, we never seem to get many people writing on the board.
It doesn't bite! Give it a go! Actually we're getting over a hundred
unique hits to this site weekly now which is very uplifting and encouraging.
If
I didn't start smoking in 1980 I could buy a house with the money
saved. True! I started smoking while working for Southside Radio in
Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin, where I lived. My boss Paul Nicholas,
who happens to be TV mogul Andy
Ruane now, gave me 30 pounds for newsreading for the week. It
was the first earned money I had ever had. I went out, bought 10 Silk
Cut and as much beer as a 17 year old can handle. Ha! Those were the
days!
You
see, the media went from promoting smoking (especially through advertising)
to telling us that it is bad for us. No wonder people of my generation
are confused! For some of us, it is too late. If we haven't already
developed life-threatening deseases, we're dead. Bottom line.
In
California in the United States smoking has been banned in pubs/Bars
for some years. In Ireland smoking in pubs is also now illegal. I
imagine it will change the social habits of many people there, but
people will get used to it. Are you in Ireland? Is it affecting you?
Let us know on the noticeboard. Anyway,
here I am using a radio website to go on about giving up cigs. There
is nothing worse than a quitter. They bore the shit out of everyone
when they give up - it's a kind of therapy. Not good for everyone
who has to listen! That's why there are online noticeboards (as mentioned
above) so you actually vent your stuff to people who actually care! Cheers! Read previous radiohome pages: ARCHIVE
14: A SUPERSTAR IN YOUR OWN JAIL
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As
I say, it's ironic really. Back in the 50's through to the 80's, cigarette
advertising was rife just about everywhere, but especially television,
the most powerful medium of all. Then there's radio. I remember listening
to Radio Luxemburg in 1976 and an ad. for Marlboro. Directly following
this ad. was another one telling its young audience how UNcool
smoking is. "If you kiss someone who is smoking, you may
as well be kissing an ashtray" rang the words of advice.
Just who was doing the ad. traffic on that station???? Maybe "Spangles"
Chris Cary could shine some light on this. So there I was at the tender
age of 15 wondering if I should first go out and buy a pack of Marlboro,
and then give up because my girlfriend would think I was an ashtray!
Being a teenager is confusing enough without mixed messages from the
popular media. 
Anyway,
by the late 80's advertising for smokes was banned on TV in most Western
countries. The "Marboro Man" went from being a hero to a
loser, virtually overnight. Then there were the real-life FILM/TV
icons who found their premature death through the dreaded cigarettes.
Steve McQueen, John Wayne, Yul Brynner amongst others, superstars
who lived in a time when people were not told smoking was bad for
you, but that it was actually cool! 
