On tobacco industry cultural appropriation
The cover of this issue features Santa Claus images from the travelling exhibition, "Merry X Ray and A Happy New Lung: When Santa Sold Cigarettes" created by Alan Blum, Director of the University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society. Taken from popular magazines published in the US, these images feature Santa, one of the most ubiquitous symbols of the Christmas season, suggesting cigarettes as a gift certainly one that gave so many recipients and their families the "gift" of disease, suffering, premature death and much heartache. I am confident, however, that even in countries where Christmas is not celebrated so widely or at all, we could find examples linking cigarettes or other tobacco products with numerous respected or revered symbols and images. Such examples illustrate cultural appropriation, which in marketing involves the exploitation of culturally significant images, activities, practices and values to sell products. An important concept in cultural appropriation is the idea of a cultural "invader" According to one writer, "Invaders arrive without warning, take whatever they want for use in whatever way they see fit. They destroy without thinking anything that appears
Tobacco Control