“Shame on ‘The Incredible Hulk’ for unnecessarily adding smoking to a sequel that would have been just as exciting and believable without it,” said Dianne Fenyk, President of the Alliance. “Universal Studios and the other Hollywood studios should be especially embarrassed for using comic book movies, which they market to children and know youth will want to see, to promote tobacco.”
The above quote pretty much sums up a press release by the American Medical Association Alliance, which is riding the coattails of a big budget movie into the news. Saying that a character promotes cigar smoking by simply having one is as sensible as saying that the Hulk (the protagonist lead) is promoting running from the law by… running from the law. Maybe the cigar in the movie shows something about the character, like how he is old fashioned and inconsiderate of others’ well-being.
In a related note, I have a theory about why crazy people are often in leadership positions of otherwise sane organizations. Maybe I’ll share it sometime.