Celebrity smokers and the ‘mass killer’

Recently, two popular actresses—Nora Aunor and Anne Curtis—appeared on the cover of local magazines holding lighted cigarettes. Nora is a known smoker, while Anne is a nonsmoker who was just made to hold the lit stick during the photo shoot.

As soon as the magazines were out, they elicited criticisms from the Philippine Medical Association and other antismoking groups. The flak is well deserved as one cannot understand much the rationale for the lit cigarettes on the cover. In Anne’s case, there is not even a modicum of justifiable argument to defend the photo since she’s not even a smoker. One can’t help but suspect that cigarette manufacturers may be working subtly on magazine editors and photographers to portray cigarette smoking as still part of the “cool” or “in” lifestyle.

In Nora’s case, the magazine editor defended her pose, and was quoted as saying that the photo captures Nora and her “new openness” that reflects “who she is today.” Nora also argued that what she did was not a crime, and people were just trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.

Magazine cover

They should understand though that there are things we like to do or are addicted to do that we should rather just keep to ourselves and not display in public or through the media. The cover is a magazine’s most powerful communication page, and everything in the cover is what the people behind the magazine would like to communicate to the public. It has the imprimatur of the editors implying that while it’s true that they may not necessarily agree with everything depicted on the cover design, they don’t think it’s offensive or in bad taste.

In much the same way that expletives and other offensive words are not allowed in radio or television broadcasts, anything which is deemed offensive to a big number of people should not be allowed on the cover of any publication. One may invoke freedom of expression, which the Constitution espouses, but one should not undermine others’ freedom not to be offended or negatively affected by whatever one is directly or indirectly communicating. One may not be legally bound to do it—as there are no laws against it as Nora rationalized—but one is morally bound to adhere to such principle.

I know people who also advocate “openness” and they prefer to move about in their homes without any dress but such openness is not the type you’d like to show the public. It may be all right to mention in the text of the article, and they could have done the same with Nora’s smoking, but flaunting it on the cover does not really speak highly of one’s sensitivity to other’s beliefs and feelings.

Responsibility

Not everyone can be privileged to appear on the cover of widely read magazines. But with it comes the responsibility to only portray and communicate what can positively influence the readers, and not what can consciously or subliminally convey unhealthy and other negative messages. I agree with the plea of running priest Fr. Robert Reyes to Nora: “…be wholesome. Gusto niyo ba gayahin ka namin? Ang trabaho niyo is to inspire us, not to scandalize us…”

Are we making a mountain out of a molehill out of these cover photos? Not really. Smoking is one of society’s most pernicious killers, if not the most. It’s a mass killer, snuffing the life out of 87,600 Filipinos every year due to smoking-related ailments such as lung cancers, chronic lung diseases, heart attacks and strokes. Every day, something like 240 Filipinos are dying because of the ill effects of smoking. It is essentially a man-induced disaster that is causing more deaths than all the fatalities due to natural calamities, vehicular accidents, rebellion and all other disasters, either natural or man-caused.

I’m sure Nora or Anne would never want to appear on the cover of any magazine holding hands with a convicted mass killer. But they just did!