Tables Turn :: Turn Tables

Currently Listening To :: Enjoy It Now :: Tortured Soul

A while back I mentioned that my current employer was causing me a little conversational static and, dare I say, open hostility towards me and those close to me.

In the so-called "darkening" market of tobacco, there are lobby groups out there who are out to get us. They hate tobacco, the people who use it, and most of all, the people who sell it.

While companies like the one I work for make easy targets, I get a fleeting yet perverse feeling of satisfaction when other companies are caught out doing ill-doings. Most everyone assumes tobacco companies are doing the wrong thing anyway, so it's a comfort to know that other companies fuck up and get caught as much as people think we do.

When BAT got lambasted in the media for being proactive about helping to stop smokers littering their cigarette butts in public, the media cried out for the company to, pardon the pun, butt out. At times, it really is a no-win situation. As a close friend said early Sunday morning, people are going to make their own minds up, and trying to convince them otherwise is in part, a futile exercise. Unless someone wants to have their mind changed, and chances of that are quite slim.

As such, it's not hard to see the mirth in Virgin Blue's recent flaming by the media. With a climate rife with Da Vinci conspiracy pop culture, when you refer to a company project as "The Scheme" you're just asking for something to go wrong. In a cruel twist of irony, Virgin Blue CEO Brett Godfrey was also recently spotted on commercial television sprouting the values and abilites of Chartered Accountants - I'm sure the ICAA pulled the ad as soon as they got wind of the story. They knew the numbers enough to do that.

Being a pro-choice individual, I've always believed that everyone is entitled to their opinion. You might not like mine. I might not like yours. But I'm not here to preach or convert, incriminate nor pass judgement. I'm here to create some discussion.

So read, ask some questions, hear the issues. Let it swirl around your head - then make up your mind. Don't stop, can't stop, won't stop.