But...they keep saying...

[IBFD_Jenn]

...the tobacco industry and smoking are being eliminated!

I sent these two tidbits out to some friends last week and thought some of you might find them interesting. They may be more U.S. related, but they show that there is still an obvious interest:

1. Smokers Fire Up Philip Morris' Profits

http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/23/philip-morris-closer-markets-equity-cx_mlm_0723markets38.html?partner=email

2. Check out the last event on the page- "The Pirate Smoker"

http://www.parenfaire.com/pages/pa_ren_faire/parenfaire_specialevents.html

[Deano]

Not sure I appreciate Philip Morris' profits are up.
Tabacco companies are immoral asses, including our own British American Tobacco company.

[cohibaIV]

With you on that one Deano....
Gaining more and more profits from kids smoking in Africa.....

[IBFD_Jenn]

Wow! Don't get your panties in a bunch over this...

The reason I found it interesting is because Phillip Morris was/is owned by Altria. Last year Altria broke off from Kraft foods and anyone (me!) with Altria stock got a percentage of Kraft stock for every share of Altria they owned.
In the past several months, Altria decided to break off from Phillip Morris...a move that is believed to have been executed so that Altria could separate itself from the tobacco industry. I think the masses thought Altria stock would go up and PM would go down, but instead it appears the opposite has happened.
Oh..and when they separated, Altria gave stock holders matching shares of PM. So, call me selfish, but...

And I don't think it's necessarily fair to take the 'kids in Africa' route when one visit to any European or Scandinavian country will show that smoking (and snuff) is still a very large business in the countries where people should know better!