A Film Analysis of Thank You for Smoking Starring Aaron Eckhart

Thank You for Smoking (2005) is a film starring Aaron Eckhart, which is based on a novel written in 1994 with the same name. The story is about a hansom, silver-tongued, lobbyist with flexible morals, named Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) who works for the American Tobacco conglomerate. Naylor is paid to talk his way out of any accusations anti-tobacco campaigns have against the tobacco companies. Naylor utilizes his superior communication skills, his ability to read people, and spin-tactics to keep big tobacco in business. This film incorporates communication between people in almost all aspects, from interpersonal communication to mass communication.

In the 4th century B.C. Aristotle founded three concepts that are used in the art of persuasion. He called these concepts proofs, and they include Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Ethos is proof based on a speakers credibility, Pathos is proof based on appealing to listeners emotions, and Logos is based on logic and reasoning. Naylor is an expert at gauging people and using these proofs to persuade them that tobacco is not as dangerous as many people make it out to be. In the film Naylor utilizes the Ethos proof by claiming the "Academy of Tobacco Studies", has been conducting research on the link between smoking tobacco and lung cancer for 15 years, and has yet to find any definitive evidence between the two. Naylor applies the pathos proof in a conversation with his boss in which he advocates for smoking to be brought back into the Hollywood movie scene. He suggests bringing smoking back to Hollywood films will "make smoking seem cool again". Naylor also incorporates logos based arguments throughout the film, but one of the most prominent is in the opening scene of the movie. Naylor is on a televised talk show along with a teenage boy sick with cancer and an anti-tobacco spokesperson. Someone claims that tobacco companies don't care if their products claim the lives of teenagers, to which Naylor retorts that the claim is false and it is in fact in the company's best interest to keep the teenager alive and smoking because if he were to die then the company lose business. He also states that it is actually the anti-smoking companies that would like for the boy to die so that their budgets will increase.

Conflict is one theme that is heavily focused on in this film. One day Naylor's boss asks him to pay a visit to the ex-actor that was at one time the face of Marlboro cigarettes. The man is riddled with cancer and actively protesting against tobacco corporations. Naylor presents the man with a suitcase full of money and sets up a situation in which three outcomes are possible. The lose-lose approach to the conflict would occur if the man were to take the money but still continued to campaign against the tobacco companies, because the tobacco company would lose money and the ex-actor would look like a hypocrite to the public. The second outcome is the win-lose and would occur if the man takes the money but donates it, in its entirety, to a charity advocating for the disbandment of big tobacco. The tobacco companies lose money and the man obtains his goal of supporting anti-smoking groups. The final outcome to the conflict is that the man keeps the money for himself so his family does not suffer when he is gone, but he also stops speaking out against tobacco. The man elects the third option, the win-win outcome, in which both he and the tobacco companies profit. Thank You for Smoking was an excellent film that I would recommend to anyone. The amount of communication that is an everyday part of lobbyist lives is astounding. From mass mediated television shows, to interpersonal communication between family members, coworkers, and competitors, and public communication. Throughout the film Naylor shows us his exceedinq skill in these areas of communication and his mastery in the art of persuasion. By the end of the movie you might even catch yourself thinking cigarette companies aren't quite so bad.

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