The surgeon general says smoking causes cancer; however, the surgeon general doesn't say anything about exploiting yourself to cause cancer. And this is why, I guess, bands and musicians and celebrities in general are promoting smoking by letting big tobacco and alcohol companies name their price. Totally aware that they are treading over any morals we hoped they possessed, certain unnamed persons won't even comment and would "rather not talk about it." I'm sure if they just close their eyes it'll all go away. The dirty money will be spent soon enough. But such a thing really shouldn't be so overlooked and accepted. America should wake up and start doing something about the reputation some people are earning it, specifically with its number one killer, tobacco.

Lots of candy and pop companies run sweepstakes where: "If you look under the cap you could win instantly!" Even tobacco and alcohol companies do these. If you collect 200 proofs-of-purchase from Marlboro cigarette packages, you can go to a free concert. So who's playing these nasty gigs? Some famous and not-so-famous bands/musicians, who apparently make career decisions based on money. Perhaps you've heard of some of them: Smash Mouth, Sugar Ray, Fastball, Bob Mould, Afghan Whigs, Los Lobos, Cheap Trick, G. Love, and Special Sauce. Like what you're hearing? You might be able to see them if you buy 40 packs of smokes.

Here's the deal: Maybe to save the musician's reputations, and maybe just to excite people into a show they wouldn't go to, Marlboro tries not to advertise the shows, and keeps it a secret which bands are playing. So you might get there just to go home again. Now I'm thinking, if this is such an unjust thing that it has to be all "hush-hush," why are bands agreeing to it? Well, apparently Marlboro pays up to twice what the musicians are usually getting. "Bands that [usually] get $10,000 or $15,000 are getting $30,000 or $40,000."(Rolling Stone) The tour kicked off last June and is ending this month- after 117 shows. And let's be open with our hypocrisy - the tour stops at major American cities such as New York, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia.

Marlboro, in the past, has run a similar campaign called "Blind Date," in which people get a chance to see such greats as ("sigh") David Bowie, the Eagles, and the Chemical Brothers. The big difference here would be the substances people are being influenced into. I think most would agree tobacco is much more dangerous and unhealthy.

As Marlboro would like it, none of the concerts are to be advertised and not even the concert-goers know who they're going to see. So I guess the motivation to save up "miles" and go isn't as strong. In the past this has even led to "microscopic turnouts." And it doesn't always depend on the city. One show in Minneapolis attracted more than 600, while the same show in L.A. got fewer than 100. Other gigs had only 30 or so, one even got only seven So it's not like Marlboro's taking over the world or anything.

And they don't pay the performers to plug the company, only to perform. None of the bands actually tell their fans to smoke or smoke more, they're simply doing a few secret, unadvertised, highly-paying gigs for a cigarette company. That helps people sleep at night. Who said they had to smoke the 40 packs anyway?

Okay, so they don't have to smoke them, just buy the things. That makes a lot of sense. If you really hate a roach you just keep feeding it, that'll make it go away. And when did we decide you had to sell yourself to be a musician? The way I understood it you needed talent to get anywhere with music. Gee, there's a concept. But as they say, "they did what they had to do." I really hate it, though. It seems like a cycle we can never stop. It's become accepted. People brush it off and go on living their lives saying things like, "Hollywood's going to s!&% anyway."

At the same time, there are those who aren't so strong. If everyone was so strong Hollywood wouldn't exist at all. People talk of Hollywood as some kind of huge Godly thing that no one remembers the beginning of but no one will stop either. We are Hollywood and every day we feed it and fuel it and encourage it. And every step in the right direction seems too small to make a difference. The hypocrisy is what bothers me most of all. Smoking causes cancer. Everyone waits in line to sue the cigarette company for their addictions and then they can smoke with a clear head (no pun intended) because they are no longer responsible for their actions.

I'm not saying we shouldn't fight back against the monopolies. I just dedicated a whole paper to it. I'm just expressing my feeling that once we catch a concept such as this we wear it out until we can justly call it "overrated," and then we get in our cars and drive to our free Smash Mouth concert. I see us doing so much in our everyday lives alone to quiet our guilt and make it easier to commit greed and sloth and jealousy and hate. It's very hard to see it because we are right in the middle. The eye of the tornado, if you will.

In the eye of the tornado I am overwhelmed, pessimistic and optimistic at the same time. Sometimes I feel like nothing I can do can make a difference. There seems like no way we could ever agree and act together as we would need to. We need to protest and boycott and cut off this evil at its source. This may be a far-fetched example, but what do they teach people to do with their pets? When they do something wrong, you do something negative to show them what they did has a bad consequence: cause-and-effect. Then the pets learn not to do it.

How are we ever going to teach these people (huge corporations of America) not to take advantage of us if we keep letting them and then giving them positive attention afterward? We have to stop being used and bought in this way. It's easy if you have your mind in the right place. People tell me all the time that they "can't imagine life without TV," etc. It's called priorities. In the big picture it's all about learning and growing and happiness and love. Marl who? Of course these things have already infected and addicted us and we can't expect people just to wake up and decide they don't need nicotine anymore. But if we could just get kids to stop starting, we would be on the right track.

Everywhere people are using substances to try to fill their own personal voids. Someone needs to have a talk with these people. In order to get people to stop starting substance habits, we need to get to the source - the thing that teaches most kids today who to be - ("sigh") the media.

Recently I've seen some great commercials running and very positively influential messages on popular shows. I applaud Hollywood for that. That's probably the most we can do without all conforming to the same philosophy, which sounds neither possible or appealing. (DOWN WITH CONFORMITY!) So we seem to be moving in a positive direction - we just need some power behind it, some motivation, some push, some will to keep going that way. I do believe the media pacifies us and I'm praying people will become more independent and individual and internally motivated. We need to act more

Instead of ignoring Sugar Ray and Smash Mouth and Fastball when they do these concerts and then watching their videos and buying their CDs the next day, we have to stand up and say, "We will not be taken advantage of!" I've already made it my goal in life to help people into individualism. Let's cross our fingers.

Copyright 2000 Joanna Farnum All Rights Reserved

Joanna Farnum is a 14 year old American Junior High School Student. She is a passionate voice for youth issues. This is her first article for *spark-online.