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1 year agoI know that episode. And the message, in red bold face across the screen for the entire episode is “Don’t smoke.” That’s different from the on-screen smoking I’m talking about.
Characters can be shady without smoking. Just because they’re not the hero, the appeal of ‘being shady’ and the incentive to look to them as a role model doesn’t vanish.
Characters can be ‘the bad guy’ without smoking. Associating ‘being the bad guy’ with smoking is even worse, IMHO than a smoking hero.