Thank you for smoking

‘Thank you for smoking’ is one of few movies those made most impact on me. This movie is number one recommendation for all marketing enthusiast. Movie doesn’t take any side i.e. smoking versus non-smoking and the best thing about the movie is that there is not even a single smoking scene in entire movie.

Now, I am not going to write its story here or tell you about greatness of that movie. IMDB is best and reliable source for such stuffs. But I will write about what I learned from the movie as student of marketing. (Warning alert! May contain spoilers)

Pasting the scenes those I want to talk about. If you have seen the movie just go the end of each scene.

Lesson 1

Scene 1 –Conversation between father and son (Nick is father and Joey his son)

Joey Naylor: ...so what happens when you're wrong?

Nick Naylor: -Whoa, Joey I'm never wrong.

Joey Naylor: But you can't always be right...

Nick Naylor: -Well if it's your job to be right, then you're never wrong.

Joey Naylor: But what if you are wrong?

Nick Naylor: -OK, let's say that you're defending chocolate, and I'm defending vanilla. Now if I were to say to you: 'Vanilla is the best flavour ice-cream', you'd say:

Joey Naylor: No, chocolate is.

Nick Naylor: Exactly, but you can't win that argument... so, I'll ask you: so you think chocolate is the end all and the all of ice-cream, do you?

Joey Naylor: It's the best ice-cream, I wouldn't order any other.

Nick Naylor: -Oh! So it's all chocolate for you is it?

Joey Naylor: Yes, chocolate is all I need.

Nick Naylor: Well I need more than chocolate, and for that matter I need more than vanilla. I believe that we need freedom. And choice when it comes to our ice-cream, and that Joey Naylor, that is the defintion of liberty.

Joey Naylor: But that's not what we're talking about

Nick Naylor: -Ah! But that's what I'm talking about.

Joey Naylor: ...but you didn't prove that vanilla was the best...

Nick Naylor: I didn't have to. I proved that you're wrong, and if you're wrong I'm right.

Joey Naylor: But you still didn't convince me

Nick Naylor: It's that I'm not after you. I'm after them." ***Points into the crowd***

Scene 2 –Inside classroom giving career tips about the ca

Kid #3: My Mommy says smoking kills.

Nick Naylor: Oh, is your Mommy a doctor?

Kid #3: No.

Nick Naylor: A scientific researcher of some kind?

Kid #3: No.

Nick Naylor: Well then she's hardly a credible expert, is she?

You will face criticism, while defending an idea which even you might not support. Believe that nothing is wrong in the world. People criticise you because you are wrong. But at the same time the one who criticising you isn’t right. When you can’t prove yourself right, your job reduces to simply proving the other party wrong.

Lesson 2

Scene 1 - In meeting

Boss: We sell cigarettes. And they're cool and available and *addictive*. The job is almost done for us!

Scene 2 - Later in meeting…

Nick Naylor: These days, when someone smokes in the movies, they're either a psychopath... or a European. The message Hollywood needs to send out is 'Smoking Is Cool!'

Everybody needs advertising, every product. Creating create image is a long process to. You can’t relax and believe that everything is going right. Your image can be dependent on something which is completely out of your control. In this example, there was no problem in the image created by advertisements but real trick was influencing external factor, the movies. Cigarettes companies did that job to perfection.

Isn’t that true for human beings too?