Overview
āMargaret Atwood, via Twitter
Mad Men meets Bad Blood in this addictive, behind-the-scenes globe-trotting narrative of moral ambiguity, law, public policy, and big tobacco.
āGiven everything the lawyer knew up to that point about smoking, as far as he could tell, cigarettes shouldnāt even have been available as a mass market product...ā
Itās the start of the new millennium and a young lawyer is recruited to work for an unnamed multinational company. It isnāt until his second interview that the product the company produces is revealed to him: cigarettes.Ā Possibly the most controversial consumer product in human history: seductive, addictive, and deadlyāyet completely legal. Over the next decade, he travels the world as he works as legal counsel to help successfully market cigarettes in dozens of countries.
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Firebrand ventures into the heart of the tobacco industry and the icy paradoxes of capitalism, each chapter a counterintuitive lesson on how cigarette companiesāthe target of increasingly intense anti-smoking campaigns and government regulations, including the 1964 Surgeon Generalās Report and 200-billion-dollar debt of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreementācontinue to pivot and thrive in the 21st century, inhaling profits from their one billion smokers worldwide.
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As Mad Men did for the alcohol-fueled, oversexed, corrupt world of New York advertising, Firebrand does for the even more despised world of big tobacco, in an addictive, behind-the-scenes piece of storytelling. The lawyerās work takes him from manufacturing factories to hocking āsticksā at UK corner store counters; from tacky resorts in Spain and pirate city-states to luxury hotels and Grand Prix events across European and Asian cities.Ā A contemporary tale of our ambiguous times, told with character-based drive and dry humour, Firebrand is a grand tour of the compelling paradoxes of globalization and corporate culture, shrink-wrapped in an engrossing narrative of a morally dubious yet completely legal enterprise.
āThis is storytelling at its best. Wry observation, compelling narrative, fascinating characters, page-turning writing, and an age-old question driving it all...ā
āJoel Bakan, author of The New Corporation: How āGoodā Corporations are Bad for Democracy
This book title, Firebrand (A Tobacco Lawyer's Journey), ISBN: 9780735243811, by Joshua Knelman, published by Penguin Canada (September 6, 2022) is available in hardcover. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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