Today, we try to keep our minds clear, when we're
asked to look the other way. The University of
Houston's College of Engineering presents this
series about the machines that make our
civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity
created them.
Last night I saw the Houston
Grand Opera's new production, Florencia en el
Amazonas, by Mexican composer Daniel
Catán. It was lovely, light -- wonderfully
staged. A riverboat takes seven people on a
surrealistic journey up the Amazon to Manaos. The
passage, through steamy jungle, takes them to their
hidden destinies.
But then, a nasty shock: this opera was put on by a
wing of the Houston Grand Opera called Opera New
World. Opera New World solicits hard-to-get support
for new works like this, and it lists the Philip
Morris Companies, Inc. as its sponsor. The program
reads like an advertising brochure for Philip
Morris. Pages 19, 36, 37, 48, and 50 all draw
attention to this major tobacco company. They don't
use the name of one of Philip Morris's food
industries. They use the name we all associate with
cigarettes.
Scientific evidence clearly shows Philip Morris is
a major dealer in a lethal, highly addictive drug.
Its survival depends on addicting our young before
they reach an age of responsible choice.
Tobacco is also very destructive to the human
voice. How can my opera company sell tobacco
advertising to pay for an engaging new opera? The
unspoken message to young music lovers is, "If you
choose to smoke, your opera company approves your
choice."
Forms of legal bribery are becoming the way of our
business world. When I go to my food market, it's
increasingly hard to find the foods I choose unless
their supplier has paid the store a slotting fee --
that's a bribe to get the store to stock the
product and display it prominently. I have the same
trouble these days in the major book chains. If
book publishers don't pay slotting fees, I may
never see their books.
Our opera people don't publish direct cigarette
advertising in their program. But corporations have
learned that advertising can be renamed, hidden
away, made to look like something else. If I'm not
alert in the food market, or in the bookstore, I'll
respond to advertising so invisible as to leave me
unaware of it.
Sandwiched among Philip Morris credits in the opera
program is information about a commendable effort
to bring opera into high schools. And students sat
all around me at last night's performance. This
opera, dealing in matters of love, youth, and age,
offers much to the young. And these are not people
whom we yet deem responsible for their own
decisions.
How do we keep these manipulations from getting to
us and to our children? By writing laws? Maybe; but
it's conscience, not the law, that ultimately
clarifies our thinking. Conscience is what'll keep
our heads straight as we buy and sell -- books,
groceries, opera. A waking conscience is what will
conclude the work of establishing equity in race
and gender. And it is by conscience that we'll see
beyond this lovely opera, to recognize the
blandishments of the tobacco industry -- for what
they are.
I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston,
where we're interested in the way inventive minds
work.
(Theme music)
The Houston Grand Opera performances of
Florencia en el Amazonas ran on October
25, 27, and 30, and November 5, 8, and 9, 1996. It
was commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera, the Los
Angeles Music Center Opera, the Opera de Colombia and
the Seattle Opera. It was an Opera New World
production. And Opera New World is sponsored by (as
we have noted) by Philip Morris Companies, Inc.
France, M., et al., The World War on Tobacco (The
Tobacco Industry is Circumventing ad Bans by
Putting Brand Logos on Awnings and Sponsoring Rock
Concerts). Business Week, November 11,
1996, pp. 99- 100.
You might be interested in the Center for Disease
Control's website on tobacco. http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/.
See also the home page of The Houston Grand Opera
(which, despite this gaffe, is one of America's
great opera companies.) http://www.hgo.com/.
The Engines of Our Ingenuity is
Copyright © 1988-1997 by John H.
Lienhard.
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