The enemy started Octabber with a big, well-funded advantage. They have the ear of Government and control of the media. So we would expect to take a hammering in their first attack, surely?
It seems they have royally screwed up, once again. We are up against a much bigger and much better funded enemy. Fortunately for us they wreck everything they touch and that includes their own schemes.
I rush-painted the 1/24 scale smoking head because I wanted to see what it looked like with an actual face on it. Here’s the ‘first draft’:
Obviously I am not going to leave it with Groucho Marx eyebrows and blurry sunglasses, and I have no white paint so the cigarette is grey for now, but that’s what it looks like when you light the fibre with a laser pointer. The light is grainy, just like burning tobacco.
There is a body for this head and it will eventually be in a truck of some kind, possibly with a smoking passenger. I wonder if there are any tobacco-laden trailers available? There might be a Michelin Man on the front of that truck, also smoking. You can light quite a few fibres from one LED and I have 3-volt laser-pointer inserts that have been begging for something to do for quite some time.
I have skulls in this scale. Come on, you knew I would. I’ll put this on Farcebook when I’ve sorted the paint and attached it to a body.
Finally, there has been a suggestion by Robert the Biker, and a fair bit of discussion, on the previous post that we should come up with a symbol along the lines of the Christian ‘fish’ symbol. Robert the Biker has sent me a suggestion which I will post here when I have his OK to do so.
My own first try at this seeks to follow the example of the early Christians in Rome. A symbol that isn’t obviously about smoking at all, which doesn’t seem to mean anything. A symbol that should be recognisable to smokers but which is unlikely to register with most non-smokers – and certainly not to antismokers because they wouldn’t have an ashtray in the house.
So, a first attempt -
Something that can be quickly scrawled, something a smoker might recognise but which would not draw the attention of the antismokers.
Better suggestions are welcome. At the rate the antis are working, we don’t need to be in all that much of a hurry to decide.
I don’t know if you can load JPEG images into comments. If not, send them to me and I’ll set up a page where I’ll load them all and we can combine, modify, and eventually decide what our logo is.
Hambro used to do a nice modelling paint in white, available at all good Airfix suppliers.
Yoir circle/lines logo seems to fit the bill
Dunno if this is another 20-20 type fail or a simple spoof.
http://youtu.be/zTk8I0luDvg (nsfw)
“There is a body for this head and it will eventually be in a truck of some kind, possibly with a smoking passenger. I wonder if there are any tobacco-laden trailers available? ”
Very clever and very cute, could be a hot selling novelty item among model and train collectors. I guess for the trailer you could have it be an open hauling agriculture truck carrying scaled down bales of fresh tobacco to auction, or it could be a covered container painted with a cig-company logo on the outside, meant to be hauling a train load of freshly manufactured cigs to stores nationwide. Wonder if that would work on a larger scale, say for putting lighted cigs in the mouths of lawn gnomes for display in gardens and front yards. if so, that might be another market waiting to be tapped.
You could also have a Terminator figure with the cigarette and also the glowing eyes behind the shades, possibly leaning on a Dalek.
Of course you can put my scribble on here, it’s free to anyone who wants to use or modify it. I believe the ‘fish’ was developed from the Greek Chi-Ro symbols being the first two letters in ‘Christ’, but that may just be my misunderstanding.
A symbol that should be recognisable to smokers but which is unlikely to register with most non-smokers
I have to disagree with you there LI. For me, among other things, it represents a symbol of defiance, a “Fuck you, I refuse to skulk in the shadows and be a closet smoker. I will NOT be de-normalised.” statement, and for that reason I think it should be recognisable to smokers and non-smokers alike at a glance.
I’ll send you my effort by email.
I agree, though I get the feeling that the vast majority of smokers don’t even realise that they’re being denormalised – as we see it. Mainly because most appear to have bought in to TC’s biggest lie by accepting that their smoke, but not them, pose a major health threat to non smokers. In other words, their change of behaviour is perfectly justified as being normal.
Like the smoking head LI. Not so much Groucho though – more South American or Middle eastern dictator (the bits of excess plastic give the impression of epaulettes). Obviously, he’ll need a state carriage (and lots of well endowed female bodyguards…).
bodyguards
I like your symbol as it is, LI, very novel. Though it will be interesting to see other suggestions.
Oddly enough, I remember, years ago, reading an SF short story in which a man and two women were in a realationship and all of them smoked, which was, of course, against the law. The symbol they used to indicate their unusual life-style was, if I recall, something like this: )-(.
Stranger things have happened, as they often remark!
I know it’s just your first rough but smoking head man made me chuckle so much
& I think the symbol is very clever too, a thicker line & possibly some gaps around the cigs to represent the “troughs” in the ash tray & it is looking very cool
I do feel a Marion moment coming on:
Smoking makes you look cool –
“but never sell a lung ‘cos you got to be smoker”
I have to say for a rush job that looks bloody brilliant!!