Thank You for Smoking

Thank You for Smoking features a wide array of manipulative behavior. Because he has no logical, truthful foundation on which to build, Nick resorts to a variety of manipulative tools. Sitting beside a cancer-stricken teenager on Oprah, Nick uses distraction and brash humor, asking if he, as the “condemned,” can have a cigarette. Then, swiftly turning to deflection, he accuses a civil servant of hoping the teen will die so his agency’s funding will increase. On another talk show, he uses insinuation, implying that former Surgeon General Koop was bribed to criticize tobacco use. Nick is also adept at reverse psychology: convincing someone to do exactly the opposite of what he asks them to do. When he warns the former prime minister of England not to mention tobacco, that is, in fact, exactly what he intends for her to do.

Though this motif most often supports the theme of The Manipulation of the Truth for Corporate Gain, Nick is not the only manipulator in the book. For instance, Buckley also reveals how institutional settings can dictate the mood and behavior expected of visitors. Jeff’s palatial setting implies that he should be treated like a royal.