Ashes to Ashes: A Short Documentary

Nicotine is a very addictive drug. If you don't believe me, just ask Tricia and Chris.


Ashes to Ashes from christopher iuliano on Vimeo.

Would You Date A Smoker?

Would you go out with a smoker? Can you imagine your future with a smoker?


Smoking Not Our Future - Social disapproval from HSC on Vimeo.

Just How Addicitve Is Nicotine?

I just finished reading an engrossing book entitled, From the Holocaust to Hogan's Heroes. It's the autobiography of Robert Clary, the popular actor who played the character, corporal LeBeau, on the 1960s - 1970s television show, Hogan's Heroes.

What I didn't know, and probably a lot of younger people who have seen him on reruns didn't know, was that Robert Clary spent about three years of his teenage life as a concentration camp prisoner during World War II. He was the sole survivor of his entire family who were deported to concentration camps from France, in 1942. Read the book, it's very compelling.

If you know anything about the concentration camps of World War II, you know that they were created to exploit and exterminate Jews, political prisoners, criminals, homosexuals, gypsies, the mentally ill and anyone else the Nazis hated.

If you were lucky enough not to be exterminated immediately upon arrival in camp, then you were expected to work everyday from dawn till dusk while being humiliated, abused, beaten, tortured, starved, and then murdered if you broke a rule or when you couldn't continue to perform your tasks (or even on a whim).

One of the interesting stories Mr. Clary told about being a concentration camp prisoner, that I'd like to share with my readers, was about some fellow prisoners who smoked. According to a paragraph in Chapter Nine, Page 80, in his autobiography -

"Among the inmates there were people who were so hooked on smoking that they would sell their piece of bread in exchange for a few cigarettes. Smoking was more vital to them than food. Like my father, I had never smoked and had never liked it. Therefore, I could not understand these people. I would think, "What are these idiots doing, exchanging their precious rationed bread for a smoke?" We had barely enough food. They were killing themselves."

So, now when someone asks you about the addictive powers of nicotine, you can tell them that it's so addictive that even starving concentration camp prisoners would abandon the one thing keeping them alive, just so they could smoke a cigarette and get their fix.

Don't Be A Smoking Dick

Don't be a inconsiderate smoking dick. If you want to spread your secondhand smoking waste, the etiquette ninjas may just have to shoot you down.


Etiquette Ninjas Ep. 4: "Dicks Who Smoke" from Jim Mahoney on Vimeo.

Celebrate Your Independence From Tobacco

To celebrate Independence Day this 4th of July, here are some inspirational stories from our British friends in Cheshire and Merseyside who've successfully quit or cut down their tobacco intake.

The video was commissioned by heart health charity Heart of Mersey for World No Tobacco Day 2011 to support other smokers and remind them of the positive benefits that quitting smoking can bring.

Celebrate your independence from nicotine this 4th of July by following the lead of our friends across the pond in believing that "Today I Can".


Today I can from Heart of Mersey on Vimeo.

Are You A Replacement Smoker?

I say we applaud the intelligent efforts of The SmokeScreen. They use an usual, but effective, approach to inform our youth about the tobacco industry and the consequences of smoking. According to their website -

The SmokeScreen provides an alternative approach to tobacco education by focusing on the wider issues surrounding tobacco through the use of social marketing materials. This enables young people to explore and clarify their attitudes towards smoking and empower them to make informed decisions about their health related behavior.

The network of people and organizations that assist the availability of tobacco is the overarching theme of The SmokeScreen. This smoking education resource focuses on the role of the tobacco industry, executives, producers, manufacturers and other key players, to show young people the sophisticated supply-chain which allows easy access to tobacco in order to recruit new young “replacement smokers”.

The SmokeScreen intervention also explores influences on smoking uptake, illicit tobacco, social and environmental impact on a global scale. This alternative content for tobacco education provides a more engaging method to communicate the wider societal issues associated with smoking with children and young people.

The SmokeScreen @ Leicester College from The SmokeScreen on Vimeo.