Movie Review - Thank You for Smoking

Thank You For Smoking

Drawing the line between personal practice and personal morals is a complicated task when your job requires you to have a thick skin and get the job done. Compromising the way you live your life and the way you perform at work can make a person feel like a hypocrite. Finding the middle ground can, for some, take years and years of work in their field to get right.

In the motion picture "Thank You for Smoking" PR lobbyist and spokesperson for a major tobacco company, Nick Naylor, was caught in a work vs. morals dilemma. Nick's goal at work is to sell cigarettes and make them appealing to the public. He is aware of the health risks and is conflicted on what he will tell his 12 year old son about smoking when he turns 18, the legal smoking age. I, personally, would advise my child not to smoke. The health risks are far too great. Work is work, but your morals are your morals and they come first in my opinion. Selling products to people is different than selling them to your family and friends. On this subject, for me it would not be difficult to decide what to do.

Another twist on this movie is when Naylor has an affair with a reporter, something no one should ever do. It is never smart to trust that anything is off the record, which is where Naylor went wrong. He opens up and trusts this reporter with information about his job and family thinking it was off the record only to find out that it was not. The reporter's attitude was that she had this job to pay her mortgage. Feelings did not matter. She took an approach that I would not take. If I were the reporter I would have made sure it was clear what was on and off the record.

Having morals and being successful at work can be successfully achieved at the same time. Yes, it can be difficult at times. It can be stressful with bosses and higher employers, but it is achievable. At the end of the day, you have to live with yourself and no one else. How you hold yourself at work reflects on your life and morals outside work. You really have to know who you are and be a strong individual to make it in a career like pr, advertising, and etc. It can be hard to manage, but people do it every day.