Program Length: 1 hour
Produced: 1997


Smokes & Booze is a one-hour video dealing with issues around the sponsorship of popular music in the promotion of tobacco and alcohol products. The video deals with several key questions: Is it ethical for tobacco and alcohol producers to use teen-oriented music in the promotion of their products? Does such promotion result in increased teen consumption of tobacco and alcohol? Are artists 'selling out' their fans and themselves to tobacco and alcohol companies by associating with them?

This study guide is intended to help viewers process their own preconceptions, reactions and ideas about the issues. The video is divided into roughly three sections: Tobacco (cigarette) sponsorship, alcohol (beer and vodka) sponsorship, and consumer resistance, referred to as 'culture jamming.' Teachers may wish to deal with each section individually at different times, or may address the whole video at once.

The Before-viewing section is to be completed prior to screening, and will help viewers understand what knowledge and feelings about sponsorship they are bringing to the video. In most cases, students will bring little or no preconceptions, as sponsorship has become more and more common. The during/after-viewing section will help viewers process what they have seen and heard to make more sense of the sponsorship issues. This section may be addressed during the screening, stopping at intervals, or after the whole tape has been screened. Not all activities need to be completed, nor does the entire tape need to be screened; choose those sections and activities that fit the time and best match the needs and maturity of the viewers.

Before-viewing Activities

1. What is sponsorship? Which businesses in your community sponsor sports teams? What forms does the sponsorship take? Why do the businesses spend money to put their company names on team jerseys, etc.? Is it OK for them to use young athletes to advertise their companies? Why? Would it be OK for a cigarette or beer company to advertise on young athletes' jerseys? Why or why not? What are the legal ages for tobacco and alcohol consumption? What are the health hazards for tobacco and alcohol consumption?

2. If you were on a team that accepted the sponsorship of a cigarette or beer company, would you feel OK about wearing the company's name on your jersey? What do you think it would mean to have the team wearing the company's name on its jerseys? Would your wearing the jersey mean that you thought smoking or drinking is a good thing to do? How do you think your parents would react to your new jersey? Would you respect a team member who refused to wear the jersey because it had the name of a tobacco or beer company on it?

3. Who are your favourite musical artists? What do you admire about them? Why? Which of the artists smoke? Which of them drink beer? Does their smoking/drinking make smoking/drinking OK for you? Do you think their smoking/drinking might encourage their fans to smoke/drink? Why or why not?

After/During-viewing Activities

The following discussion questions can be pursued during or after screening. Stopping the tape and discussing the issues at the time they appear will allow students to focus on one issue, rather than having to remember a statement long after the tape has finished.

4. "Smokes, booze and Rock n Roll are the unholy trinity of rebellion in our culture." Avi Lewis Many teens rebel against adults, most often their parents, as part of the process of moving from the dependence of childhood to the independence of adulthood. During this time, they often are attracted to rebel heroes, rebel stories, songs of rebellion, etc. In what ways are smoking, drinking and music rebellious? Which musical artists and songs can you name that are rebellious? How might booze, drugs and rock n roll be symbols of rebellion?

5. "In a recent survey, two-thirds of Canadians said they didn't mind their favourite songs being used in commercials." Why would people object to a company using their favourite song in a commercial? Find someone who is angry that Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A Changin' was used in a Royal Bank commercial. Ask them to explain why they are angry. Do you understand and agree with their anger? Why? Are you part of the two-thirds who don't mind? Why?

6. Beck was recently approached by the Miller Brewing Company, who wanted to use 15 seconds of its song for a beer commercial. The offer escalated from $10,000 to $300,000 before the brewery realized that Beck had no intention of selling the song. How do you think 15 seconds of Beck's song would promote Miller beer? At $1.25 a bottle, how many bottles of beer would Miller have to sell to make back its investment in Beck's song? How many bottles of beer does Miller sell in one week? Why do you think Beck refused the offer? Do you admire Beck or think they were foolish?

7. Export A put $3 million into the Canadian music scene in the 1990s, then dropped out when their expectations of sales were not met. What would happen to the Canadian music scene if Molson shifted its promotions to another area, such as sports? (Remember that Molson owns Molson Park and a half-interest in Universal Concerts, Canada's largest concert promoter.

8. "When you put great artists in a show associated with something deadly, then it makes that deadly thing look great. It's sick."
Graeme Kirkland

Would your favourite artists associated with smoking make smoking look great? How does this statement relate to your previous discussion of teen athletes wearing tobacco or beer company names on their jerseys? Is it the same issue? Why?

9. Proposed Canadian legislation bans in-store displays and restricts tobacco ads to direct mailing or magazines with primarily adult readership. It also restricts the size of brand names and logos on sponsorship ads to 10% of the poster.
Research the current status of the proposed legislation. Find out if the above facts are still true, where the bill is in the process of becoming law, or how it is being enforced and obeyed if it is already law. How do you think this law will protect consumers? Why do you think this law is (un)fair to the tobacco companies?

10. What does Health Minister David Dingwall say about his proposed tobacco legislation? How do the newspaper headlines contradict what he said? How does this make you feel about the Minister's trustworthiness?

11. "The most insidious effects of all is the recruiting of artists and athletes, who end up as spokesmen for the tobacco industry, defending the right of the tobacco industry, and, even though they don't smoke themselves, they've been co-opted into promoting a message."
Dr. Richard Schabas, Chief Medical Officer, Ontario

"Spending all that money on the music industry knocks down the argument that they [tobacco advertisers] are not targeting youth. It's so obvious it's embarrassing to hear them say it."
King Mez, Real Media

Does the Export A sponsorship you have seen make the artists seem like spokespersons for the company? Does Soundgarden seem to be promoting Molson beer? Why else would the companies sponsor music?

12. "There's been a successful marketing of cigarettes as outlaw, cool behaviour."
Dr. Perry Kendall, Addiction Research Foundation

"Cigarettes are cooler than ever."
Mark Kingwell

There is a montage of celebrity faces, each smoking cigarettes. Is smoking trendy? Name the celebrities in the images. Do these images glamourize/promote smoking? For whom? How?

13. Over six months, 10 big bands, including Soundgarden, The Sex Pistols and Sheryl Crow, played gigs at small clubs as part of Molson's Blind Date program.
"The idea behind the Blind Date program was to get image association with music. They [Molson] weren't trying to be sticking their name on one artist and saying 'us and that artist, we're the same.' They wanted to have their own program. They said, what can we do that's unique, that will have a street feel to it and gets us exposure? because they're trying to have an image and sell beer."
Steve Herman, Universal Concerts Canada

By keeping the bands' names a mystery, the Molson name became more prominent, and helped to sell beer. Why was this a good marketing idea? How did the idea co-opt/exploit the power of teen music? How many under-age teens would notice Molson's name? Was this use of teen music ethical?

14. Bill Jones (Molson Entertainment Properties) insists that the Blind Date program did not involve an endorsement of beer by the bands. Look at the Blind Date program advertisement and listen to Bill Jones' and Avi Lewis' conversation. Do you agree that there was no endorsement? Why or why not?

15. What is Bill Jones drinking during the interview? What is Avi Lewis drinking? What messages about beer endorsement and image might you take from their choices of drinks?

16. On Labour Day weekend 1995, Molson held a special event in the town of Tuktoyaktuk, NWT. Hole and Metallica reportedly received $500,000 each to headline. Three jets flew in and out carrying everything necessary to stage a major rock show, as well as 500 (mostly American) contest winners. The ad campaign surrounding the event was rumoured to cost $10 million. The Inuit community of Tuktoyaktuk received $35,000 towards a youth centre.
Do you think the people of Tuktoyaktuk were exploited to promote Molson beer, Hole, and Metallica? Do you think Tuktoyaktuk should have received more money? Do you think Tuktoyaktuk should have received ANY money? At $1.25 a bottle, how much beer would Molson have to sell just to make back the $1 million they paid the bands? How many bottles of beer does Molson sell in one week?

17. What is the agenda of the Culture Jammers? How does culture jamming work? "It's a criminal offence to deface others' property and there are much less destructive ways to get their political point of view across." Sgt. Marilyn McCann, Metro Toronto Police
Debate: Be it resolved that modifying public advertising to remind people of the hazards of cigarette and beer consumption is OK.

18. Find an ad that you would like to culture jam. Redesign the ad to use its energy against it. This might involve changing a small piece of the ad, as in the Du Murder modification, or a whole-new design, as in putting Joe Camel in the cancer ward of a hospital or reshaping a hangman's noose into a vodka bottle.

19. Several videos from the Scanning Television kit complement issues discussed in Smokes & Booze .  Selling the Sharks examines the creation of a company image that will be popular with many age groups. Billboards: Culture or Pollution? examines the question of who owns and who controls urban spaces, especially billboards. Niketown examines the use of celebrity athletes in the promotion of Nike products. No Smoking! describes the Ontario government's efforts to curb teen smoking through Public Service Announcements. Sign Pirates deals specifically with the culture jamming of billboards. Adbusters describes the efforts of the Media Foundation to criticize and reduce over consumption.
Scanning Television is available from Harcourt Brace in Canada (1-800-387-7278). In the US, it is available from the Center for Media Literacy (1-800-226-9494).

Written by: Neil Andersen
Neil Andersen is an award-winning Curriculum Consultant with the Toronto District School Board. He is also a speaker and consultant in media and communications technology. His most recent work includes the Between the Lines CDs, the teachers' study guide for the award-winning Scanning Television, and study guides for Space, Bravo! and MuchMusic's Cable in the Classroom broadcasts of original media literacy programming.

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