Tobacco, advertising, and integrity

In the course of my work today I was trying to roundup some tobacco advertising for my next DARE lesson. It talks about the deception in tobacco advertising and how it is aimed at children. I have to small misgivings with this lesson. One is that I have been hardpressed to find any print tobacco advertising, which is what led me to drive around and take pictures of posted advertising at local convenience stores (more on that in a minute). So I'm not really sure tobacco advertising is really that big an issue anymore. Second I am really struck more about the whore-ishness of all advertising. Everything, even razors for shaving are sold with sex as the carrot. I rented a PBS documentary on advertising to youth called "The Merchants of Cool" from Netflix and it really made me realize how competition in the market place drives movie makers, merchants, and advertisers to try to out do one another to grab our attention and unfortunately ever increasing smuttyness is the most efficient means. What was really disappointing was an interview with a 13 year old who was waiting in line to be a contestant in a model search. She said something like, "I always need to be beautiful so that people will like me." She seemed willing to do whatever it might take to get noticed. It really sent home how we are whoring out our own daughters and sisters to sell more widgets. That's pretty low. And that makes focusing on tobacco alone seem so short sighted. It is the same lack of identity that drives some to sell themselves out that drives others to use drugs. Drug use is a symptom not the problem itself. We have modeled that efficiency trumps integrity and then we wonder why they take drugs, cheat on tests, and try out for american idol when they can't sing or dance a lick. After all taking drugs make you feel better a lot quicker than working hard and achieving a goal, cheating gets the grade which is all we adults care about, and if you could make it as a star without ever having to practice once or be reprimanded by a teacher wouldn't that be better? I don't think so.