A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it

leaves one unsatisfied. What more could one want? (qtd. in Hilts, 102).

Statistics show that there have been 1.1 billion smokers in the past 90 years, making it the most widespread addiction in the world. Those smokers make up 47% of the men and 12% of the women out of the whole world population. The age a person starts smoking is getting lower every year and, in lots of countries, including America, kids are already smoking regularly at age 15. Also, more than 400,000 Americans die each year from smoking, making it the most preventable cause of premature death. In fact, one in every five deaths in the United States is caused by smoking (Tobacco Stats).

The reason these statistics are important is because there is an ongoing controversy over whether or not the tobacco companies should be held responsible for injuries or deaths due to smoking. They are being blamed for deaths among smokers in the last half century. Numerous lawsuits have been filed against the companies claiming that the companies failed to warn the consumer of the dangers of smoking, but there has yet to be a victory

On the other side of the argument, it is said that these types of lawsuits are often provoked by greedy lawyers looking for a large pay off. A $5 billion lawsuit filed by 60,000 flight attendants claiming to be injured by second-hand smoke ended in a $349 million settlement. Some say this case may actually be justified because $300 million will go towards a foundation that will study tobacco related illnesses, and provide treatment for these individuals. The reality of this case is that the lawyers, a husband-and-wife team, received the remaining $49 million from the settlement. In many cases lawyers have put together these suits and sought out "victims" to champion their apparently righteous cause that will ultimately earn them millions. There seems to be an enormous amount of greed surrounding this entire issue. The government, states, "victims," and lawyers are just waiting to take a bite out of the tobacco industry (Manj). In many cases, the awards are not directed at dealing with the problem of smoking, addiction, and health.

New Yorker Rose Cipollone began smoking Chesterfields in 1942. Her reason to smoke? “I thought that it was cool to smoke, and grown up, and I was going to be glamorous or beautiful. I thought I would be Joan Crawford or Bette Davis,” she later recalled. In later years, she changed brands, going through L&M, Parliament, Virginia Slims, and True. In 1984 she died of lung cancer, but before she did, she sued the cigarette companies that had made the cigarettes that had killed her. Her name has achieved a kind of posthumous fame among personal injury lawyers because she was the first to ever file such a lawsuit (White, 73).

It is argued that lawsuits against tobacco companies are justified because the tobacco companies have knowingly damaged the public’s health; that they have failed to adequately warn consumers of the risks of smoking. This argument is one that is brought up repeatedly in court rooms.

While outcomes of this sort are not uncommon, the verdicts could come out quite differently as well. In April of 1999, the family of a man from Portland, Oregon, who died of lung cancer in 1997 was awarded $81,000,000, the largest ever verdict in a smoking liability case. The jury found Philip Morris at fault in the death of Jesse Williams, a retired custodian for the Portland school system. Williams reportedly smoked three packs of Marlboro cigarettes for over 40 years. His widow, Mayola, and his six adult children were awarded $79,500,000 in punitive damages and $1,600,000 in compensatory damages, a record sum. Philip Morris announced that it would appeal the verdict, which they did successfully. It should be pointed out that the industry has thus far prevailed in the appeals of all such jury verdicts (Jet). Donald Warner, the Associate Dean at Southern Illinois School of Law, said, “The cigarette industry has never paid out one cent as compensation for tobacco-induced injuries. . . . Tobacco law is a defendant’s dream come true” (Whelan, 1984, 154).

It would be ludicrous to discuss the history of the cigarette without discussing the history of cigarette advertising. Cigarettes and advertising have always gone together. Unlike some products, such as soap or cereal, cigarettes probably never would have achieved a true mass market in the United States without advertising. Advertisers have never had much more to sell than the “sizzle” of ci

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