Dirty Business; If You Love Someone Who Smokes, You Must Get This Tape!; Showdown On Tobacco Road

These three programs share as their focal point the monumental efforts of media genius Tony Schwartz, whose commercials and radio ads on the hazards of smoking have become legendary in his own time. In Dirty Business, the facts are laid out: 365,000 people die from lung cancer every year, 90% of smokers start before they're 19, the cigarette industry spends some 2.5 billion a year in advertising. Although the industry claims otherwise, Schwartz convincingly demonstrates that these ads are being aimed at our young people. In If You Love Someone Who Smokes, You Must Get This Tape!, some of the same material is used, but the focus shifts to Tony Schwartz's personal encounter with lung cancer. Schwartz's best friend, Ken McFeeley, a dedicated New York City cop was diagnosed with lung cancer in early 1986. He died in October of that year. In the intervening months Schwartz and McFeeley teamed up to wage an all-out anti-smoking war. A recorded message from McFeeley was available through a phone call; during the campaign, the number was called over 30,000 times a week. This is the inspiring story of their collaboration: TV spots, radio ads, public speeches--all aimed towards warning people about the hazards of smoking. The last program, Showdown on Tobacco Road, a CINE Golden Eagle Award winner for 1988, is a penetrating history and analysis of the history of cigarette advertising. The emergence of the tobacco industry during World War I, the campaign to make cigarette smoking respectable for women, the widespread use of cigarettes among popular culture figures (Bogart, Bacall, FDR, etc.), are chronicled. But the bulk of the program is devoted to the current controversy over the rights of non-smokers vs. smokers, with several interviews featuring spokespeople from both sides of the issue. All of the programs are well produced; smaller libraries might be particularly interested in If You Love Someone Who Smokes, You Must Get This Tape! because of its low price. (See Coma: The Journey Back for availability.)