Notes from a debrief of Philip Morris’s 1998 Litter Focus Group read: “Non-smokers tend to give smokers a lot of slack about throwing down a butt,” claiming that “throwing it on the ground eliminates fire risk,” and that litter is a “natural result of outdoor smoking areas.” For smokers, littering is a “natural part of the ritual”; an act of “rebellion”; a “small act of civil disobedience”; and an acceptable demonstration of power in “stepping on a lit object and grinding it.” To deal with the “issue” of litter, the key was “don’t be preachy,” and to have “no billboards, no advertising,” “don’t give antis any more reason to yell.”
The tobacco industry aimed to successfully frame littering, just like smoking itself, as an act of “acceptable rebellion” brings pleasure through expressing angst inexpressible elsewhere in society. Protecting and providing a safe space for these meaningless but environmentally polluting expressions of “civil disobedience” was a priority for the industry to retain and attract as many smokers as possible. It also was in the interest of other managerial regimes, such as corrupt governments to give people certain guilty pleasures that they could believe that they were being free with, so that they wouldn’t clamor for real freedoms, like clean water, clean air, a universal basic income, wealth equity, or taking their commons back.
References
Robinson & Maites. N331; The R&M Creative Brief [Internet]. 1998 Apr [cited 2019 Mar 26]. (Truth Tobacco Industry Documents). Report No.: ypyg0085. Available from: https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/#id=ypyg0085
Donohue C. Litter Focus Group De-Brief; N331 [Internet]. 1998 Jan [cited 2019 Mar 26]. (Truth Tobacco Industry Documents). Report No.: npyg0085. Available from: https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/#id=npyg0085
Proctor RN. Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition. 1 edition. Berkeley: University of California Press; 2012. 752 p.
Hendlin Y, Anderson SJ, Glantz SA. “Acceptable rebellion”: marketing hipster aesthetics to sell Camel cigarettes in the US. Tob Control. 2010 Jun;19(3):213–22. DOI: 10.1136/tc.2009.032599