One of my favorite novels is Thank You for Smoking, written by Christopher Buckley.
(It apparently became one of my old buddy Nate’s favorites as well, because he never returned my copy...)
Anyhow, it’s a story about a PR hack for the tobacco industry, his trials and tribulations, etc etc.
It’s funny, smart, and timely.
One of the subtexts of the novel is that the main character meets regularly for dinner and drinks with two friends, also PR hacks. One works for the liquor industry, the other for the gun industry. They jokingly refer to themselves, if I recall it correctly, as the merchants of death.
I had occasion to think about this book on my drive home from work the other day, along with old Saturday Night Live skits where Dan Ackroyd defends unsafe toys, like “bag of broken glass” to Jane Curtin.
I was listening to All Things Considered, on NPR. They were discussing soda consumption, how it’s changed over the decades, studies linking it to various health problems, etc.
Pretty straight forward stuff.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126511372
Then they brought on Maureen Storey, senior vice president for science policy at the American Beverage Association for the rebuttal.
And I almost wrecked the car.
Maureen explained that soda in and of itself was not bad for you, and actually provides you with healthy and necessary nutrients.
Like… water.
See, cuz kids run the risk of not being sufficiently hydrated, so a nice big soda after exercising can help with that.
What else?
Sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup.
See, cuz they’re full of calories, and calories give you energy….
I figured at any moment, she’d just bust out laughing, and say “Ah, I’m just *bleeping* with you guys. C'mon, it’s soda for godssakes! You might as well look for nutritional value in a bottle of Mrs. Buttersworth…”
But she didn’t. Turns out, she was really serious about the health benefits of water and sweetner.
And in being so, also appears to be really serious about the idea that we’re ignorant.
I’ve been trying to give up drinking Coke for awhile now, anyhow. Thing is – I love the stuff.
L-U-V love it.
Yesterday I heard the Coke machine calling my name from a couple rooms away, like the song of a Siren, trying to lure me onto the rocks….
But she actually pissed me off so bad, that I’ve decided to redouble my efforts to give it up.
That’ll teach ‘em.
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