Each day tobacco accounts for the deaths of roughly 1,200 Americans, making it a bigger killer than alcohol, AIDS, car crashes, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined. At the same time, the American Legacy Foundation, the group charged with educating the public about the dangers of smoking, is seeing its annual budget shrink by $20-$25 million each year, Seth McM. Donlin reports in Boston's Weekly Dig. That's because independent cigarette brands are gaining market share, diminishing the total the big four tobacco companies must pay to fund an anti-smoking campaign under the 1998 tobacco settlement with 46 states.
Sometimes word of mouth is a more effective way of promoting a paper than a print ad. That's why some alternative newsweeklies send street teams out to bars, movie theaters and cultural events to hand out freebies and stir up interest in their papers. When they dispatch their street teams to public places, alt-weeklies like NUVO and Boston's Weekly Dig are relying on a centuries-old marketing technique the music industry revived.
The new issue of the Dig looks a lot like The Boston Phoenix, with bylines that are plays on the names of Phoenix staff writers. The Boston Globe Names columnists Carol Beggy and Mark Shanahan report that the parody is the latest episode in a dispute over advertising tactics (third item). Dig publisher Jeff Lawrence has challenged Phoenix publisher Stephen Mindich to a one-mile footrace on April 19, with the loser required to make a donation to charity. Mindich hasn't responded.
Posing as a heterosexual, Weekly Dig writer Lissa E. Harris infiltrated the crowd opposing acceptance of same-sex marriage outside the State House in Boston last week. A rosary recitation faltered when a man led a chant opposing homophobia. Anti-gay-marriage activists carried signs saying “Adam + Steve = 0 People. Adam + Eve = 6 Billion People.” Inside the State House, Harris writes, she "got confused by the labyrinthine corridors on the first floor and followed a gaggle of protestors from both sides who found momentary common ground as they searched for the stairs."
Errol Morris has been accused of being a misanthrope, but Weekly Dig Editor Joe Keohane writes that the director of the documentary about former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara obsesses too much over humanity to be judged guilty of hating it. Morris may think we're doomed by a combination of human folly and weapons of mass destruction, but he hopes awareness could keep us from engaging in endless wars. "People ask me if I would like this [film] to be shown to the current administration," Morris tells Keohane. "You betcha. Let's strap them down in seats and force them all to watch 'The Fog of War.'"
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