I disagree. If a person is not intelligent enough to see through a simple cigarette marketing strategy and think for themselves, then they shouldn't put the blame on the cigarette companies for preying upon their lack of critical thinking. They should be less stupid. Every single company has a vested interest in the status quo; auto companies, drug companies, insurance companies, cigarette companies, banks, fast food companies, transportation companies, oil companies, defense companies, and the list goes on and on. To single out one single company who wants to prolong the status quo, as unethical as it may be, is turning a blind eye to just about every for-profit company on the face of the earth. It's ingenuous and ridiculous. The only reason people go after tobacco companies is because it affected them in some obvious way, such as making them sick. If you're going to go after one for it you have to go after all of them, but people won't do it because unless it affects them directly, they don't care. It's the pinnacle of hypocrisy.
I'm all for taking down corrupt companies and organizations, and some cigarette companies actually did do some pretty shady stuff and they've been prosecuted for it, but we can't paint them all with broad strokes and blame them for selling a product people want to buy.
If we want to make smoking illegal because it's unhealthy then that's one argument, but as long as we don't want to ban smoking we can't blame people for selling it. People want to have their cake and eat it too, which is impossible. If you smoke, you run the risk of dying and that's all there is to it. If you accept that risk then that's your decision, but don't get pissed off when you smoked for 50 years and *shockingly* get lung cancer. The fast food industry doesn't hide how fattening their food is. If you want to take that risk and eat it anyway, they'll sell it to you. But don't get pissed off when you eat McDonald's every day for 10 years and get fat and have heart disease.
