Thank You for Smoking Movie Post

Thank You For Smoking is a movie that follows Nick Naylor, who is the spokesman for Big Tobacco. Nick is very skilled at what he does, even being able to twist the worst situations into his favor.

While Thank You For Smoking is quite comedic and witty at times (even seen in Nick's name, which is short for nicotine), its satirical nature allows for many of its core ethical issues to come to light. In this blog post, I will be focusing public manipulation, bribery, and seduction

The first, and most common, ethical dilemma brought up in the movie is Nick Naylor's use of public manipulation. Nick has to constantly manipulate situations in favor of Big Tobacco to continue selling harmful products to susceptible consumers. An example of this can be seen in the beginning scene of the movie, when Nick states, "Why would big tobacco want Robin ( the boy with cancer) dead? If anything we would be losing a customer. Tobacco researchers want him dead because then they’ll get more money for their research." Nick is able to effortlessly take any blame off of himself and place it on the groups of people trying to help.

As one movie critic claimed, " 'Thank You For Smoking' cuts to the core of this simmering cultural issue — dealing with deception, manipulation and dishonesty in our public and private lives — and is especially wrenching for professional negotiators and mediators. Their work in particular is reliant on techniques and skills that require twisting words, shifting and shading peoples’ stated intentions and meaning, re-framing issues, and other manipulations necessary to allow people to see their adversaries and disputes in a different light."

The second ethical dilemma brought up in the movie is Nick's use of bribery. He uses bribery in order to keep Lorne Lutch, the Marlboro-Man, from bad mouthing the cigarette industry over his recent diagnosis of lung cancer. Nick manipulates Lorne into a situation where he has to choose between his morals and his family, while Nick is ironically begging him to do the right thing and choose his morals.

According to this paper on Thank You For Smoking, "honesty is a key ethical code in the field of Public Relations and Nick breached that code, thanks to the evil of bribery, in order to accomplish his task."

Finally, seduction is seen when the reporter uses sexual advancements on Nick in order to uncover the dirty secrets of the tobacco industry. She exploits a lonely man, who is dealing with the aftermath of a divorce, to investigate this story that will ultimately further her career in journalism.

According to this paper on Thank You For Smoking, "the act of seduction for the sake of getting information for journalism purposes goes against the fundamental principle of journalism ethics, in which the practitioner should have a moral commitment in conveying information."

Thus, it is evident that throughout this movie, the idea of breaking ethical conducts in order to advance one's own career is common. These people collectively commit administrative evil, in which organizational members carry out crimes that inflict pain and suffering on others, while carrying out their tasks as "good" professionals.

If I were Nick in this situation, it would be hard to say whether or not I would do the same thing. It is definitely better to have a job that can feed myself and child rather than no job at all. However, if that job involves harming others, don't I have a moral responsibility to denounce that job for the common good?