Book Report 5, "Thank You for Smoking"

Nick meets with Jeff Megall, where he discusses the idea of getting more people to smoke cigarettes in movies to boost sales. Megall says that they are working on a new movie called Sector Six. Sector Six is a futuristic movie that takes place in space. The two main characters would smoke a new brand of cigarettes called Sector Six Cigarettes. Jeff even suggests that Nick’s company releases a real brand of Sector Six cigarettes along with the movie. Nick likes the idea and goes back to the office to tell BR and the Captain.

Nick was told to go give Lorne Lutch 500 thousand dollars to pay him off so he wouldn’t attack the tobacco industry anymore. Lutch lives on a farm in southern California. Nick goes inside the man’s house and sweet talks him a little bit, as Nick is very good at. He tells Lutch to take the money and immediately call the press and tell him about the bribe. This surprises Lutch. Nick then says that he should donate the money then, which Lutch doesn’t like. Nick says that he can either tell the press and give away the money or keep his mouth shut and keep the money. A week later Lutch cancels a meeting he had scheduled with some newspaper, meaning Nick’s plan worked.

On his way back to the office Jeff Megall calls Nick and tells him that the movie producers want $25 million for the actors to smoke.  Nick is not crazy about this, but knows it would definitely help sales.

Another problem arises, there is a new lawsuit being debated that would require cigarette packs to have a skull and crossbones on them. This would be terrible news for the industry. Nick wants to talk to his “creative” people to see how this problem can be resolved.

The FBI still remains hounding Nick. They keep asking unrelated questions and even ask if they can search his house without a warrant. Nick agrees and the men search and eventually one of the men seems satisfied and they leave.

Nicks creative people come up with an idea for the skull and crossbones. They design the skull and crossbones to resemble good old Mr. Rogers. They did a poll on who would buy the cigarettes with that type of warning and the results were much better with the Mr. Rogers idea. It just goes to show the things people will do just to keep making money.

When Nick is out to dinner one day, the FBI agents show up and actually arrest him. They say he framed the whole kidnapping and did it just as a publicity stunt. Nick goes to find Captain and tells the Captain that he thinks he is being framed by BR and another coworker, Jeanette. Captain agrees that it is possible.

Nick goes to work the next day and accuses BR and Jeanette of framing him. It is very obvious that they are guilty, he’ll just have to prove it. After Nick gets back into his office, he is informed that the Captain passed away earlier that day.

Nick goes to talk to his lawyer. While there BR calls the lawyer and tells him to tell Nick he is fired. Nick’s lawyer then says he can no longer legally advise Nick because it would be a conflict of interest since he will be with the Academy of Tobacco Studies. It’s a really messed up situation, one minute things are looking great for Nick and the next he’s shit out of luck. Nick is then informed that Jeanette has taken over his job. It’s becoming much more obvious that he was framed by Jeanette and BR.

Nick and 2 of his friends shoot Peter Lorre in the chest with a riot gun and kidnap him. Peter Lorre is the new head of the Tobacco Lobby. He took over the Captain’s job. After they kidnap him they play a recording while driving him around. They use a recording that sounds like his kidnappers are just having a regular conversation. At one point, they spin the van in a complete 180 degrees and Lorre goes flying out the back. The 3 people all feel relieved that they did that to Lorre. Nick even asks for a cigarette, his first after being kidnapped. Nick also decided that he’s just going to plead guilty to the charges. He says he is doing it because he feels guilty for working for the tobacco industry.

It was a good book, just didn’t end the way I would have liked. I would have liked for Nick to get BR and Jeanette in trouble for what they did to him.

MAKE MORE SLOGANS.

The activity we did on Monday was a little bit hectic. I was in the middle group. I was told by the top group to make my workers come up with as many slogans as possible and then our group would get 70% of the profits. I was a little confused but found the bottom group I was in charge of and told them to start making slogans based on 4 criteria about management. After we got some slogans made we ran to the top group but we wanted to make sure we had an agreement to buy them and a set price and blah blah blah. In the end, it didn’t work so well. I ended up not getting any Goate Bucks. The whole activity didn’t seem to run smoothly. I felt rushed the entire time and I had a million unanswered questions running through my mind.

The activity was a great idea. It would have been really interesting if we would have had more time and if we had a little more background information on the activity.

Book Report 4, "Thank You for Smoking"

Nick returned to work and was greeted by everyone at the office. Br even gave him a very heroic and proud speech, comparing him to a war hero. Right after the speech one of Nick’s coworkers asks Nick if he’s going to quit smoking. He hasn’t smoked since the incident. Nick replies by asking for a cigarette and lighting up. After 2 drags he gets dizzy and lightheaded. He immediately puts out the cigarette.

All of the employees are briefed on new security tactics. No corners are to be cut; everyone is worried that the people who did this to Nick are going to strike again. The employees all receive basic training on what to do in bomb threats. They are all also given locator devices in case anyone is kidnapped and even pepper spray. The employees are then informed that they will all go away for a weekend to learn about security tactics and what to do in an emergency. As you can see, the tobacco industry is very worried about the whole incident.

Nick is receiving an enormous amount of publicity from the kidnapping. Surprisingly, it’s mainly positive. He even went back on the Larry King show. His boss thought that maybe the kidnapper would call back again and make another threat. Nick didn’t want to go back on the show but Br insisted. It seems as if the tobacco industry is starting to use Nick and his kidnapping to their advantage, and is disregarding Nick’s personal feelings on the subject.

The book constantly talks about the woes of being involved in the tobacco industry. They are always complaining that there is never any good news. It’s always a new lawsuit or some anti-smoking advocate making headlines and ruining business. Lorne Lutch is the new anti-smoking advocate in this case. Lutch is a man who used to smoke, but then got terminal lung cancer and now is running an anti-smoking campaign. There is even talk about creating the Lorne Lutch foundation, which would be a ranch for terminally ill smokers and lung cancer patients to go and live out their final days, weeks, months, or years. This, as you can imagine, would really negatively impact the tobacco industry. The Captain wants Nick to try to talk him out of this and get him to hush his mouth. Captain suggests that they give him 500 grand to shut his mouth. This is quite the bribe in my opinion.

Two FBI agents, Agent Allman and Agent Monmaney, are assigned to Nick’s case. The show up at work one day and ask Nick a few questions. The questions are very rude and have little to do with the actual case. They are almost implying that the incident was choreographed just to give the tobacco industry the positive publicity that it is receiving.

Br now wants Nick to do interviews with Young Modern Man, a Japanese magazine. The Japanese are very understanding when it comes to smoking. The books says that 2/3 men aged 16-25 smoke in Japan. Smoking is even allowed in children’s tv commercial in Japan. The interview is about Nick’s company selling their cigarettes in Japan. Nick also has a meeting with “the puffers” and Lady Bent. The puffers are a group of people who are for smokers’ rights. They are the old fashioned men who smoke at least 2 packs a day. Lady Bent is the ex Prime Minister. She serves on the board of Agglomerated Tobacco and is very influential in the world of smoking. The FBI agents randomly show up at Nick’s office again and ask completely unrelated questions and then leave. They are starting to seem a little fishy if you ask me. Nick walks into the room where he is performing the interview with “the puffers” and it is full of smoke. He gives a speech relating these men and women to the doughboys of World War II and expresses his adoration for them. The cloudy room gets to him though and he almost goes into paroxysmal atrial tachycardia again.

Nick has no time to waste; he has to rush to his meeting with Lady Bent. When he gets there he has to talk to one of her guards first. After searching to room for bugs Nick insists he and the man speak in the bathroom, so he can be sure there are no bugs in the room. Nick tells the man how he is afraid that Lady Bent might be the target of another murder attempt like his since she is on the board of Agglomerated Tobacco. Nick then gets to speak with Lady Bent herself. He tells her the same thing and asks, basically begs, her not to make and public or private statements regarding tobacco at all. He tells her that her life might depend on it. The next day’s Wall-Street Journal has an article about Lady Bent. It says how she supports the right of American cigarette companies to enter the Asian cigarette market. She also says that this has nothing to do with her being a member of the board of Agglomerated Tobacco. Nick receives a call from Br thanking him enormously. Nick knew Lady Bent wouldn’t listen to him, in fact he knew she’d do the exact opposite so he told her exactly what he didn’t want and she did exactly want he wanted her to. This means that sales will most likely go up. Nick seems to be fantastic at his job.

Pay em all more!

In class on Wednesday we watched a video by RSAnimate. At one point in the video they brought up this idea where employers would pay employees a larger salary or hourly wage than necessary. This is done so that the employees aren't worried about money and have their full attention on work and ultimately become very productive. This new productiveness earns the firm more revenue, so that the firm can afford to pay them this larger amount. I think this is a great idea. The video said that there was scientific evidence to back their statement as well. This means it isn't just a good idea but a good business strategy. So why aren't more firms doing it? This can almost be tied in with the idea of self actualization. If people weren't constantly being drug down by worrying about things like money, then they could work to their full potential and become self actualized.

Maslow

In class on Monday we talked about motivation and what motivates people. During the discussion Dr. Goates mentioned Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. This basically says that people have a structure of needs where most important needs (ex. food) need to be fulfilled before other needs like social acceptance.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

 

The top part of the pyramid is this idea of self actualization. Self actualization is the idea that people are always striving to be the best they can be. And that this is the sole motive to realize a person's full potential. I found this idea to be quite amazing. Self actualization is a very interesting and almost utopian idea. People would do their jobs to the best of their ability and become "masters" at their jobs.