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Textual Analysis of Thank You for Smoking

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Textual Analysis of Thank You for Smoking
Alberto Barreto
Final Textual Analysis Essay
Caring for the Neighbor

In the movie “Thank you for smoking”, big companies are seen as having no social responsibility with its consumers and the people that are affected by their products when they clearly know the negative effects and impacts that their products have in society. The big companies in the movie are the ones that belong to the tobacco industry and concentrate in the cigarette business. These companies are shown as not caring for the damage that tobacco does and that regardless of the effects of cigarettes on people, because they still want to sell their product in order to earn a profit. These companies fund an association called The Academy of Tobacco Studies, whose main purpose is to research the connection that may exist between cigarettes and lung cancer. In the association a very important employee named Nick Naylor, who is the main character of the movie, holds two very important roles, that of chief spokesman and vice-president. Nick Naylor has the hard job of representing the interests of tobacco companies in a society that finds tobacco despicable. In other words, he tries to persuade people that the tobacco companies and cigarettes are not bad for people, when globally it is known that tobacco kills. It is known that tobacco kills because it is the primary producer of lung cancer. Throughout the whole movie many clear evidences on how these tobacco companies have no social responsibility can be seen.

In the movie a very important quote said by Nick Naylor is one that said; “ We can put the sex back in the cigarettes.” That quote came out when the board of the academy for tobacco studies was in session due to the threat posted by the Vermont Senator Ortolan Finisterre, an important critic against cigarettes usage in the United States. The threat against all of the tobacco companies was a year after the announcement every package of cigarettes must contain a picture of skull and

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