About the cigarettes that Man Men smoke

This story is about a product that is all around us...a conspicuously-consumed product that's all about us--which no one I talked to knew very much about.  Even I didn't know for the longest time--but I must say I wondered an awful lot about the matter until I found out what was going on!  

Any thinking person who's seen the Emmy and Golden Globe winning hit series Mad Men, currently running on television's AMC, has had to pause at least once or twice and speculate as to how the producers could have found so many bright, gifted actors and actresses--all who were willing to smoke themselves silly to make the critically acclaimed show, well, a hit show!  For the longest time I was amazed that so many of the "right" people for one show were such serious smokers--all to portray how much smoking might have occurred fifty years ago!  Now I know the answer--and will tell you here shortly.  First, a little background to the story....

When I first started thinking about this question, my reasoning went like this:  smoking cigarettes is a patently bad idea, acknowledged so by vast majority of people walking around today--well, at least in the U.S.  Thus, since less than 20% of adults in the U.S. smoke tobacco products--how did the people who produce Mad Men get virtually all of the cast members to think this was a good practice to be engaged in for the show?  

And, if you haven't watched the show, let's get this understood:  there's smoking going on by all the characters in virtually all the scenes.  In the finished product, viewers only see the final "shot"--think of all the practice "takes" that it took to get the final, hour-long show produced.  Multiply the all the takes and the final scenes the public sees--and what you have is an enormous amount of puffing, blowing, inhaling, exhaling, first- and second-hand smoking!  Like I pointed out before...how do they get get a lot of people to do that?  

Well, in finding out I discovered a product category--and, yes, from time to time this post is about even the wacky products in our culture that marketers sell and people buy--I was completely oblivious to before seeing Mad Men--and being stumped by the question how do they get this part of the show done.  Maybe you knew--but I didn't.  [Incidently, most people I asked when I found out didn't know about this either.]  

Here's the explanation:  The actors in Mad Men smoke--are you ready for this--herbal cigarettes!  Yes, there is a category of products available on the market today of made up of perfect looking "cigarettes" yet that have no tobacco ingredients.  The category is called "alternative cigarettes" that's growing like gangbusters; CVS retail store people--to their credit--provide consumers with helpful information on this genre.  Here's an excerpt from that site:

What do corn silk, banana skins, and weeds have in common? People desperate for a smoke have used them all in improvised cigarettes.

If something can be rolled up and smoked, you can bet somebody, somewhere, has rolled it up and smoked it. Most of these experiments don't get very far, but a few non-tobacco substances have managed to catch on. In fact, "alternative" cigarettes have become a booming business. Some contain mixtures of herbs; some combine tobacco with cloves, dried tendu leaves (a plant from India and Southeast Asia), and other unusual ingredients.

Alternative cigarettes -- sold at many convenience stores and over the Internet -- are easy to find and easy to buy, even for kids who aren't old enough to buy tobacco. They often look exotic and come in appealing flavors such as cherry or vanilla. But their biggest selling point is that they're supposed to be a healthy alternative to "real" cigarettes. As one online merchant of natural tobacco and clove cigarettes put it, "Gotta smoke? Smoke smart!"

Well, almost smart.  The truth is that although comparatively better for you than tobacco cigarettes, they're not healthy--and the CVS site goes on to make that point.  

But the point for me was this--how sheltered can one guy be?  Hell, I got tenured on research that revolved around smoking products and tobacco advertising--and until a few days ago--knew nothing about alternative cigarettes...that there were normal, adult people walking around smoking stuff like corn silk, weeds and banana peels!  It's 'way to late for me to get started on the smoking thing, but I wish I'd known about this long before now--if only to be up on what other people were up to!  

So there you have it:  don't let if ever be said that in covering the wide world of commerce, customers, and marketing, that this post doesn't bring it's readers information for life!  I can tell you that after this, watching all the Mad Men smoke, for me at least, will never be the same.  

And, too, I have a new appreciation for what a wonderful, wacky marketplace we are a part of--as well as the lengths some people will go to smoke!  

And now you know the rest of the Mad Men story; bet you also learned about an entirely new way to get the smoking thing in to boot.   

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