Why Santa

The reference to Santa Claus may seem bizarre. I was trying to think of another marketing campaign as successful as the Tobacco companies. By successful I mean being able to get into the very fabric of society in a way that seems normal and matter of fact. There were two that sprung to mind straight away. Christianity and Coca-Cola. Christianity we will leave in its wrapper I think, but the second refers to the title. If you think about Christmas and Santa Claus you will see an image in your mind. An image of a rotund, cherry cheeked, white whiskered, gentle, old man who holds all the good things about man in one hand and the hopes and dreams of children in the other. It will be an image that captures all your memories, smells and sensations about this time of year. Images of Christmas cards showing Santa Claus in a Victorian setting, with open fires and stockings hanging from the fireplace. The truth however is that the modern day image of Santa Claus was a marketing strategy by Coca-Cola. It was 1931 and a Swedish artist was commissioned by Coca-Cola to come up with something that would sell more coke. He invented the big round, red cheeked, red outfitted image that we all know today. The idea being that every time an image of the new Father Christmas was shown, he would have a bottle of coke in his hand, the same way an actor would always seem to have a cigarette in their hand in the tobacco advertising in films and on television. This shows the power of marketing and how we come to accept what we see as true.

What do you believe ?

The belief system is a very complex part of the sub-conscious; it acts rather like a photo album. It stores pictures, smells, sounds and feelings then recalls them when it is required to validate that the experience you are having now is the same as one you have experienced before. If it is the same it will check how you dealt with it last time and also if that way of dealing with it was successful. If it was then the brain will be instructed to act in the same way. The problem with the memory and belief system is that it cannot make new decisions, only replay what has happened before. It does not distinguish fact from fiction, imaginary from reality and dreams from real experiences. In other words, it takes whatever images it is given and stores them in exactly the same way. For instance, I believe that man landed on the moon. I was obviously not there and I do not remember it actually happening, (I would have been about 10 months old) but I have seen footage and images and my mind has now convinced me that it happened. Every time I now see a picture of Neil Armstrong standing next to the stars and stripes; my mind never questions the validity of it. But if someone were to prove to me that it actually took place in a film studio and that the whole thing was a hoax, then I would never be fooled again. Every time I saw the same pictures I would now have an image of cameramen and directors. It is similar to the principal behind a Jim Carey film, The Trueman Show. Trueman has been brought up to believe everything that happens to him is real, until the day he figures it out for what it really is. A false image created to make him think 'this is normal', but one day he realised all was not as it seemed and from that moment on 'he got it' and could never be fooled into going back to the way he was. The same applies to your belief system built around what smoking 'does' for you. You believe that smoking relieves your stress but it will only relieve the chemically induced stress cigarettes created in the first place. It will not in the slightest touch real stress and anxiety. There are many theories about how people start and continue to smoke. Some people say they are addicted to smoking, others say it is a habit, whilst others are still in denial and say they can stop whenever they want. They are sometimes referred to as casual smokers. They can go all week without a cigarette, or an urge to smoke and then smoke again at the weekend, or when they go out. The casual smoker proves that the thing that makes people smoke is not nicotine. I say denial but this group of smokers are by far the closest to the truth. This group have a more realistic view of what cigarettes do for them. They have not been blinded by the image of smoking. In other words their perception of smoking is not clouded by hype and image of what they see on the screen, or by false attachments to a cigarette. Whilst it is true that there are chemicals and additives in tobacco that are of an addictive nature, this is not the reason why people find it so hard to quit. I am now going to tell you something that may or may not make sense. I would suggest you read it several times. Most, if not all smokers remember their first cigarette: where they were, who they were with, how old they were and the music and fashion of the day - all the things that go into making up a memory, or a trauma. Trauma creates a memory because the body records the feelings, smells, sounds and solutions when a traumatic event takes place. Smoking your first cigarette was a traumatic event. After all, you were self administering a poison. Your body will have been trying to expel it as quickly as possible. Your whole immune system will have been coming under attack; it wasn't a natural thing to do. You will have had no idea of the effects to be had. Your heart will have raced and your blood pressure will have risen. You will have felt nothing like this ever before. This initial response will have been because of the nicotine. Nicotine is a stimulant. However after about an hour, when you realised that nothing was going to happen to you, other chemicals and additives in the tobacco will have started to take effect. One of these chemicals is hydrogen cyanide. Cyanide is a nerve agent that attacks the central nervous system; it causes a feeling of outright fear - the type of fear that could only be felt when your life was in danger. Cyanide was used in the First World War. When the effects of the gas started, the soldiers would feel utter fear and terror. They would surrender in their thousands. It is used in many US prisons for execution and it is the lethal injection inflicted on prisoners sentenced to death. With smoking, there is a series of mistakes and misunderstandings that can be just as disastrous and these are all created by the delayed chemical reaction.