So, something else for this dreary Sunday afternoon then.
I've been sitting on this one a while. It's one of those things you discover accidentally and think, "What the hell am I going to do with that?" You just know there will be a use for it someday, so you save it on the hard drive into a folder that is the equivalent of a home's junk drawer, and wait for the day to arrive when it becomes relevant, if it ever does. Eventually, the clutter becomes intolerable, so you figure you ought to do something with this stuff. Consider this a bit of housecleaning.
One of the many hundreds of things that anti-smokers cannot tolerate is the so-called "promotion of smoking," which includes everything from a cigarette packet's logo to the person forced to stand outside in the cold to have a fag -- that's all promotion to them. Even so, a photograph of someone smoking is all it takes to make their blood boil, especially when it depicts an athlete enjoying the delicious delights of a smoke, but it's orders of magnitude worse when a photo appears on the site of a company that sells cycling clothing and other accessories. For instance, this photo on Rapha's blog in June 2012 (look away now, anti-smokers, look away!!!):
 |
| Credit: Rapha Panache 2012 Blog |
Oh, the horror! A cyclist is smoking! This is intolerable! A child might see it and get cancer and die! Something must be done!
Indeed, keen cyclist (or perhaps it's her husband who is keen) and anti-smoker Dreadful Arnott was not best pleased by this grotesque imagery. Outraged, she fired off this scathing message to members of her (or her husband's) cycling group:
Dear fellow Lambeth cyclists
Once again Rapha have associated its brand (and the name of its CEO) with smoking
http://www.rapha.cc/panache-2012/?cm_mmc=email-_-290612-_-textlink-_-panache
At least this time it's a cigar instead of a fag or a rollie as in the previous two examples, but it's still promoting smoking.
Using smoking in Rapha marketing promotes smoking as cool making Rapha the dupe of a multi-billion dollar industry who are denied the right to advertise themselves because their products kills half of their users.
I have an axe to grind as I run Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). I have emailed the CEO Simon Mottram and would ask anyone who cares about health to do the same.
simon.mottram@...
All the best.
Deborah.
(I've screen captured the message, below, in case the link breaks or the message is deleted.)
 |
| Click to enlargify |
Well, that message is filled with the usual hysterical claptrap we'd expect from the likes of the Dreadful, and I doubt that Rapha gives a flying fuck what Arnott thinks. But one thing in particular in her message does stand out. Did you spot it? No? Look again. I can wait.
...
...
...
...
...
See it now? Not sure? OK, enough teasing. It is this line: "At least this time it's a cigar instead of a fag or a rollie [...]"
Whoa. I see how it is. In Deborah Arnott's mind, cigars are in a different class than "fags or rollies." I wonder why that is. I could come up with several reasons for this belief, this apparent exception, but I'll leave it to you to come to your own conclusions. Feel free to opine in the comments; I look forward to reading them.
Anyway, smoking cycling professionals of the world, why wait until after your bike ride to have that fag or cigar? Go ahead and light up at any time:
 |
| Credit: Vandystadt.com via Sportquick.com via yacf.co.uk, it seems |
