A recent French anti-smoking ad campaign only raises more questions than it answers.
Yes, I’m a non-smoker and always will be, but showing wispy, waify, shag-haired French youths symbolically sucking off the corporate Man in an effort to cast smoking as exploitation has deeper ramifications. When done right, oral is not submissive and steeped in victimization, and what if you have a thing for sexy-ass Daddies in business attire? What if you’re the aggressor forcing yourself on vulnerable older men in a role reversal scenario? How about if you’re waxing his sex stick for gum? Is it OK as long as it’s sugar-free? And what if he smokes afterward? What then?
Torn.
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effective probably. and unfortunate. but hot too. oh the french.
Because this ad campaign is his hot, it probably does more to encourage smoking among gays than discourage it among anyone else.
None featuring young women?
^yes, there were some women in the series.
Oh the french,. Maybe you would have to be french to truly grok the semiotic signifiers here – my anglo guess is that the shag boys are supposed to look underage and victimized so the equation is ‘cigarette advertising:nicotine addiction :: dicks: child abuse’ ; or something
My point of view from France is that anti-tobacco adds have gone awry here and it’s not new. Because It’s considered a great cause, the people who are heavily paid to create these adds have no sense of self-criticism and feel free to invent any message as long as it’s provocative. I guess the idea behind this add is : If you start smoking at a young age, you’ll be enslaved to Tobacco manufacturers for the rest of your life and it will be just like giving head to some Philipp Morris executive. But what we see first of all is : “Don’t be a homosexual, don’t suck dick, keep your dignity, be a man” or simply : “oral sex is bad”. This add is a disgrace and I am quite ashamed, as a frenchman, as a homosexual and as a smoker.
Wow, that makes me want to START smoking. Of course I have a suit fetish.