Thank You For Smoking

Tobacco companies have always been a main staple of hatred and criticism in politics. The corporations who manufacture cigarettes have always been perceived as horrible, corrupt businesses that will do anything to hock their cancer-inducing product to American consumers. Thank You For Smoking, Jason Reitman’s 2006 adaptation of a book of the same name does no different, but adds an extra layer of thought to the issue, what about the fault of the consumer?

 The film stars Aaron Eckhart as Nick Naylor, a popular tobacco lobbyist who works for The Academy of Tobacco Studies, a tobacco company funded research group tasked with finding a link between nicotine and lung cancer. His job involves convincing the American public that tobacco isn’t as bad as it seems, and is tasked with bringing cigarettes back into popular culture via product placement. He does this by reported well-designed “facts” to those who listen to him speak regarding the issue, and simultaneously spin the conversation to his favor.

Naylor is set to appear before U.S. Congress and protest a bill which requires tobacco companies to place a skull and crossbones logo on their packaging when he is kidnapped and poisoned by being covered in nicotine patches. After waking up in a hospital, he is informed that he may never smoke again, as his exposure to nicotine has made him hypersensitive to the chemical. When he begins a relationship with a journalist, Heather Holloway (played by Katie Holmes), Naylor mistakenly puts his trust in her and tells her all about his career of twisting real facts to his favor. Holloway publishes an article exposing his lies and Naylor falls into a horrible depression. His son, who Naylor has been educating about the business of a political lobbyist, rejuvenates him by explaining that everybody needs to be defended, even those who don’t deserve a defense.

The film ends with a brilliant speech from Naylor explaining that adding a skull and crossbones to each logo is further emphasizing a point that is already known across America. It’s not the tobacco corporation’s intent to kill Americans, it’s to sell a product, and it’s the consumer’s choice to be ultimately responsible for the consequences. The knowledge is out there, it’s up to America to decide what they want.  

The film captures this inner working of perceived “evil” in a corporation while simultaneously explaining how these corporations aren’t inherently evil, but are working to simply sell their product. The fault of tobacco use isn’t in the company; it’s in those who use their products. Naylor’s success is reflected in this, as he is again regarded as a hero to lobbyists everywhere, and continues to educate those whose businesses are under fire for dangerous products and practices on how to overcome these challenges. The film is easily regarded as a satire in the purest sense, but it’s ability to convey both humor and morality at the same time make Thank You For Smoking a fantastic piece of political film.