In an ironic turn of history, the grandson of cigarette tycoon R.J. Reynolds spoke against the use of the drug in Forum East on the 30th anniversary of the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout.
Patrick Reynolds, who is the founder of the Foundation for a Smokefree America and was the first tobacco industry insider to testify against the drug before Congress, told of how seeing his hard-partying, absentee father die of emphysema initially caused him to devote his life to the abolition of tobacco use.
“Here is my dad,” he gestures to the large photograph of a man hooked up to a respirator.
“He looked like this when I asked him if it was the cigarettes that were killing him, and he denied it. He said it was asthma.”
Reynolds tailored his presentation to the mostly high-school age audience, with a theme built around the coming of age rituals of past civilizations.
“This is the bridge you cross from childhood to adulthood,” he said, while dramatically crossing the floor in broad steps. “This is when you become responsible for your choices and make them consciously, without being swayed by outside influences.”
Reynolds also laced his many facts and ideas about tobacco use with these themes of self-empowerment and confrontation of feelings, and told that this was a part of being an adult, making adult decisions, and building a network of positive support.
“People who succeeded best in life got help,” he said.
As he showed pictures of the various types of advertisements the cigarette companies used, he asked the audience to say aloud their feelings about the type of advertising used.
It was this type of advertising and marketing, he explained, that the tobacco companies used to get young people addicted to smoking.
The examples he showed were of candy, fruit, and tobacco flavored cigarettes, and cigarettes marketed toward African-American smokers.
The methods of his message were his flamboyant theatrics, which included voice-inflected anecdotes, sweeping arm gestures, and near-shouting in anger about the dangers of drugs. “Face your pain,” he raised his voice and stepped into the audience.
He presented many facts, which were mostly provided by the American Cancer Society, in this style. Among these were the California annual spending on tobacco prevention, which is $79.7 million, compared to the Center for Disease Control recommended spending: $165.1 million.
Reynolds added here that getting Proposition 86 passed in California would have made the state the leader of tobacco prevention in the United States.
The Great American Smokeout is held every year, nationwide on the third Thursday of November.