Why a business would sell a product that kills its own customers


Because of my fascination with history, and advertising, I'm aware that businesses often promote and sell products that kill people, specifically, their customers. And while this is nothing new, and continues to this day, it does seem illogical. As an old advertising and marketing guy, it's all a matter of degrees, percentages, and money. I'll see if I can explain.

When the United States Surgeon General's report came out, in 1964, linking smoking to lung cancer, it really didn't change much. People continued smoking, and companies continued selling and promoting tobacco. New laws were slowly put into place to restrict its promotion, especially to children, but there was tremendous resistance by people who considered this to me heavy-handed behavior on the part of big government.

Nowadays, of course, many people wonder why certain businesses are profiting from disinformation about vaccinations for COVID-19. Just yesterday I watched a video of someone wondering why a certain news station (who shall remain unnamed here) was promoting anti-vax information. The question was: aren't they just killing their own base? Of course they are. It's nothing new.

Speaking for myself, I'm inclined to allow companies to promote products as long as the people involved do the same thing. That is, I'd like to see tobacco executives chain-smoking, CEOS of car companies driving the most dangerous cars they sell, the fast-food big-wigs eating nothing but cheeseburgers, that sort of thing. Of course, these people are invisible, and this is where it gets very confusing - the visible talent.


In advertising and promotion, the word "talent" is used to describe the person that people see. It could be a model (like the people in the billboard at the top of this post), it could be a celebrity, it could be an actor. And the implication is that the talent uses the product. But this is rarely true. The models in that billboard may have been smokers, but I'm inclined to think that the man there spent more time in the gym than standing around smoking.

And of course this applies to anything that is described as entertainment, such as the news station who shall remain unnamed here. Their talent has all been vaccinated for COVID-19, which seems to be surprising a lot of people, because those people get in front of the camera and promote anti-vax. The ethics of promoting something that makes people ill, or kills them, is something that's worth discussion. It isn't something that I as a graphic designer have ever done, but I do understand that the amount of money that can be made doing it is just too tempting for a lot of people.

There are some powerful persuaders out there, and there always have been. Buyer beware.
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