Mark Crispin Miller analyzes the tobacco industry and its advertising. Ads, take a critical look and you discover have complicated intentions. Advertising is not so much about selling a product in that it is ultimately intended to sell consumption. Miller takes a media savvy eye to the most heavily advertised product in the USA. Beginning with the cigarette as phallus, Miller looks at the flagrant early association of the cigarette smoking with eroticism. He then moves on to the more contemporary use of pseudo feminism to sell cigarettes to women in the 80’s and the sadomasochistic imagery promoting smoking in the Black community. This is a classic in media analysis that provides a step-by-step break down the psychological intentions used to sell tobacco. This show also includes an informative experimental interlude deconstructing the economic and political power of the tobacco industry.

Miller researches modern propaganda, history and tactics of advertising, and media ownership. He is professor of media studies at New York University and the author of the book: “Fooled Again, How the Right Stole the 2004 Elections.” He is known for his writing on American media and for his activism on behalf of democratic media reform. His other books include “Boxed In: The Culture of TV”, “Seeing Through Movies”, and “Mad Scientists”, a study of war propaganda and is the editor of “Loser Take All: Election Fraud and The Subversion of Democracy, 2000-2008”.