Legal aspects of the movie, "Thank You for Smoking"?

Question

Hi,
I am writing a term paper for my business law and ethics course about the movie "Thank You for Smoking." My report will give a summary of the movie, and also discuss the legal aspects of material covered in the plot.
I'll have no problems writing about the ethics, however, I need some help finding the laws that relate to the story. I've been searching around for about an hour, and I'm not having much luck.
I would really appreciate some help!
Thank you!

Hi,
I am writing a term paper for my business law and ethics course about the movie "Thank You for Smoking." My report will give a summary of the movie, and also discuss the legal aspects of material covered in the plot.
I'll have no problems writing about the ethics, however, I need some help finding the laws that relate to the story. I've been searching around for about an hour, and I'm not having much luck.
I would really appreciate some help!
Thank you!

The laws I need know about are any related to smoking. Smoking bans, cigarette advertisement bans, and so on.

Answer 1

Hi Amy, not sure what the previous post was about, but it was clearly uncalled for.

As a lawyer who has seen the movie (albeit a while back) I am sure there are many issues you could raise. This is all just sort of stream of consciousness off the top of my head, so I apologize if it's not too organized, but here are a few thoughts.

1) It seems to me that much of the protagonist's (I've forgotten his name) actions are designed at misleading others. If he does this for his own material gain he may be comitting fraud (for example, doesn't he mislead the former Marlboro man into accepting a cash settlement of some sort-?--that could be a fraudulent inducement into a contract).
2)You also might want to look into whether or not there are any applicable lobbying laws he violates.
3) Are there laws against "pushing"cigarettes to minors (I'm thinking of the little classroom lecture he gives) or something similar.

The best way to do legal research for applicable cases or statutes is using lexis nexis or Westlaw. To the unitiated these databases can be daunting, but if you are at a large university you may be able to get access at the law library. Failing that, you might want to go to a local law library and ask the librarian for help (call ahead and explain the situation to clear access ahead of time). Yet another option is to check out www.findlaw.com, which generally provides access to cases and articles free of charge, but is no where near as sophisticated as Lexis or Westlaw. Finally, you might call your state bar association's relevant sub group or a Washington Lobbying or ethics organization (I do not know but suspect there are several) and see if they have any suggestions. Research is about getting your hands dirty and hitting dead ends until something clicks into place. Good luck!

Answer 2

well it would help if you provided a summary of the movie, and what legal points they are alleging. Not all of have seen the movie, nor intend to do so.