Who is thank you for smoking based on

I recommend both for an easy and good laugh. One of the funniest books I've read in a long time. I saw this on a library shelf and remembered how much I'd enjoyed the film a few years ago.

The book is definitely worth reading too. Very dark humour, it's the sort of funny that might make you spit out your tea. Who would have thought that lung cancer, gun death and fetal alcohol syndrome could be so hilarious Nick Naylor is Big Tobacco's spokesman - the man whose job it is to make them look good, to suck up criticism and spin it int Smokin'!

Nick Naylor is Big Tobacco's spokesman - the man whose job it is to make them look good, to suck up criticism and spin it into a positive. He's very good at his job. After work, he relaxes with his two associates - spokespersons for the Alcohol industries and Gun Lobbies respectively. Called the Mod Squad Merchants of Death , they support each other as much as comparing the number of deaths their employers are responsible for on an annual basis.

If you are easily offended, this may not be for you. This is completely crazy - we are rooting for a man trying to get teenagers to start smoking! The whole book manages to mock a whole host of industries and employers. One of my favourite moments involved the answerphone message of the Washington Post: "If you feel you have been inaccurately quoted, press one If you are a confidential White House source and are calling to alert your reporter that the President is furious over leaks and has ordered a review of all outgoing calls His verbal dexterity is admirable, even if few people reading this will agree with his arguments.

The story takes a few twists and turns, involving an unidentified person gunning for Nick, a threat on his life, some suspicious FBI agents and an attempt to get cigarette smoking into a major Hollywood film. If you enjoy slightly tasteless but incredibly witty reads involving morally suspect men - look no further. Just brilliant.

Nov 07, Book Concierge rated it liked it Shelves: library , social-commentary , concierge , satire. As such, he is frequently vilified, and the target of threats.

He shrugs this off, but he does commiserate with his friends Bobby Jay spokesperson for the gun lobby and Polly spin control for alcohol industry — collectively calling themselves the Mod Squad for Merchants of Death. He also begins a relationship with sympathetic reporter Heather Holloway.

Still the industry wants to ensure their golden boy is safe, so the Captain assigns him heavy duty security. When Nick ditches them, he finds himself kidnapped in the lobby of his own office building, tied and blindfolded, taken to a remote location, and covered in nicotine patches before being unceremoniously dumped on the National Mall and left for dead.

Jun 03, Rebecca rated it really liked it. I saw the film in the theatre in the spring and really liked it a lot, so of course, I picked up the book. It was smartly written and had the same tone as the film, which is always great. The movie dealt more with Nick and his family, especially his son, while in the book, they where in it for like one, maybe two chapters, out of thirty.

He dealt more in the book with his job as a spokes person for a pro-tobacco company and his relationship in the MOD Merchants of Death I saw the film in the theatre in the spring and really liked it a lot, so of course, I picked up the book.

He dealt more in the book with his job as a spokes person for a pro-tobacco company and his relationship in the MOD Merchants of Death squad, which where the most entertaining parts in the film. What else can I say, Nick Naylor is a spokesperson for a group that promotes the most hated cause in america, the smoker.

The book was entertaining and easy to follow and I am lame to say this, but I am glad I saw the movie first. Both where very entertaining and I like picturing the actors in their roles.

Like with my GPA in high school, A's will never see the light of day in this tag Nov 22, Aimee Weiland rated it it was ok. I would have given this book one star, except it did make me laugh twice Thank You For Smoking is funny and fast-paced and just a little farcical. I just kept picturing scenes from the remarkably faithful, it must be said movie version the whole way t My full review of Thank You For Smoking can be found on Keeping Up With The Penguins. I just kept picturing scenes from the remarkably faithful, it must be said movie version the whole way through.

Thank You For Smoking is a book I probably would have loved-loved-loved otherwise. I'm going to say something I don't usually say. Let me preface my comments by admitting that I am not one of those literature snobs who, overhearing a conversation about a movie, feels the uncontrollable urge to interject with, "The book was better!

He OK. He knows how to READ! Saying "the book was better than the movie" is just like saying "the Richebourg Grand Cru was better than the Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill. Now, I like books. And I like movies. Each mode has its own advantages and disadvantages. And I loathe comparing the two because they're completely different animals.

Having said that, I liked the movie better. First, let me run down the basics. Thank You for smoking is an irreverently satirical story about a man named Nick Naylor who is a spokesman for Agglomerated Tobacco.

As vice president of the Academy of Tobacco Studies, Nick's job is to promote the virtues of smoking cigarettes to the general public amidst the caterwauling cries of outrage emanating from cancer victims, angry soccer moms, health zealots, self righteous politicians and anyone else who wants to experience that "holier than thou" feeling that only comes from denouncing the devil in the public sphere.

Nick also makes some nefarious enemies such as B. Buckley has written an extremely charming satire about personal responsibility and the sleazy underbelly of the American political machine. His story is well thought out and nicely told. His writing is fresh and a triumph of the English vocabulary - I relied heavily upon my dictionary - - but not in an overbearing, preachy sort of way!

But it's Buckley's characters that shine. They're the real reason this whole thing works as well as it does. It was genuinely delightful to read the next piece of dialog from the Captain or Bobby Jay as they served to provide the levity next to Nick's serious struggle to keep his head above the water in the dog-eat-dog world of insider politics. What went wrong: The ending! I'm not going to spoil anything but I was extremely disappointed with the ending! Have you ever been reading one of those books that was just wonderful only to have the main characters completely divest themselves of the motivations they held so fiercely throughout the entire story and become a completely different character in the final chapters of the tale?

Because it sucks! It makes you question whether or not you really even liked the book. To be clear: I DID like the book. A lot. I just wish it had ended a wee bit before Buckley took a hard left turn with the characters that I had come to treasure.

Why the movie was better: in my humble opinion The movie took Buckley's excellent premise and his delightful characters and deposited them into a better paced, BETTER ENDED plot which worked wonderfully and didn't get so distracted with the witty nature of the satire that it failed to make a coherent point.

The movie just did it better. But it happens. In fact, I fully intended to give it 5 stars. However, the destruction of the characterization in the last few chapters - especially the epilogue - of the book made me so disappointed that I yanked 2 full stars away and ended up with a "merely liked it" 3. Let that be a lesson to all you authors out there: don't you dare mess with well loved characters' motivations.

You will be held accountable with Goodreads rating stars Jun 04, Sidna rated it liked it. Buckley has a very dry sense of humor. A good example is the name of the main character, Nick Naylor, a lobbyist for the tabacco industry. The other lobbyists featured in the book are for alcohol and guns firearms. The three main lobbyists in the book are anti-ATF. To me, Nick is a modern-day Scrooge. Not many people remember that at the end of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is said to keep Christmas better than anyone.

By the end of the book, he has an Epiphany and completely changes his life. Reading Nick's response to all the anti-tobacco claims was entertaining because someone would make an unrefutable claim and Nick would have a response for it. Having grown up in a family of chain smokers, I am not as bothered by smoking as some people seem to be.

I've always thought that was an attention-getter. I smoked briefly in college, but quit because I thought it was not healthy. My parents weren't so tuned in and died from smoking-related illness. However, they were adults, smoking is a legal addiction, and it was their choice. I get tired of people who try to tell everyone else how they should live.

This book is not laugh-outloud funny as the cover claims, but it was an interesting read. Buckley was trying to make a point without preaching. If you like dry humor, read "Boomsday" by this author. I thought it was much funnier. Just leave us a message here and we will work on getting you verified. Loaded with delightfully unscrupulous characters and and a witty, cynical script, Thank You For Smoking is a sharp satire with a brilliantly smarmy lead performance from Aaron Eckhart.

Read critic reviews. Rate this movie. Oof, that was Rotten. Meh, it passed the time. So Fresh: Absolute Must See! You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket. Cinemark Coming Soon. Regal Coming Soon. By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie.

There are no featured reviews for Thank You for Smoking because the movie has not released yet. Top Box Office. More Top Movies Trailers. Certified Fresh Picks. Loki: Season 1. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Season 1.

The Walking Dead: Season Certified Fresh Pick. View All. Fall TV. Celebrating Hispanic Heritage. Log in with Facebook. Email address. Log In. First Name. Last Name. By signing up, you agree to receiving newsletters from Rotten Tomatoes. You may later unsubscribe. Create your account Already have an account? Email Address. Or -- why not in the future, after cigarettes are safe? Smoking in a space station? Reitman grew up around movies; his father is Ivan Reitman " Ghostbusters ," " Evolution ".

But Jason has his own style, sneaky and subtle. Instead of populating his movie with people smoking and coughing and wheezing, he shows not a single person smoking, although the ancient Captain Robert Duvall , czar of the tobacco industry, holds a cigar like a threat. Eckhart has a good line in plausible corporate villains see his debut in " In the Company of Men " , and he is smiling, optimistic, and even trusting as when he tells girl reporter Katie Holmes things he should know will not be off the record.

Naylor's opponent in the film is Sen. Ortolan Finistirre William H. Macy , a Vermont environmentalist whose office desk is covered with his collection of maple syrup bottles. The senator has introduced legislation requiring a skull and crossbones to be displayed on every cigarette pack, replacing the government health warning.

The symbol is better than the words, he explains, because "They want those who do not speak English to die. Reitman's screenplay is based on a novel by Christopher Buckley son of William F. Consider this exchange between Nick and his young son, who wants help on a school assignment:. Now they're our best customers. Next time we won't have to shoot so many of them.

What I admired above all in "Thank You for Smoking" was its style. I enjoyed the satire; I laughed a lot because it's a very funny movie, but laughs are common and satire, as we all know, is what closes on "Saturday Night Live. Does Nick really change, or is it just more spin? After years of neglect, Nick also tries to mend his relationship with his twelve year old son. In these scenes, the film loses the sharpness of its satire and looks like many other family comedy-dramas starring anyone from Tom Cruise to Adam Sandler.

At its best, Thank You for Smoking is a send up of spin doctors and media-savvy people doing anything and everything they can to manipulate a gullible public. William H. Macy as Vermont Senator Ortolan K. Finistirre trying to prosecute the tobacco industry using the same spin tactics as our anti-hero Nick.