So stand straight and act your age...

So I was browsing through the Ad Age site today and found an interesting article that ranked the Top 100 Advertising Campaigns. Now number one didn't surprise me all that much, it was number three that really kind of surprised me. Ranked number three was the Marlboro Man advertising campaign. It really surprised me that they would rank the Marlboro campaign so high, mainly due to the idea that is so often put forth that big tobacco is evil. It's always been kind of funny to me when people talk about big tobacco or big oil or anything like that. The whole idea of the huge corporation that is pure evil. When you think about it isn't big tobacco just providing a service? Isn't it up to the individual people to decide whether or not they smoke? I mean I understand that advertisers work to sway and create public opinion, but in the end isn't it up to the public? Just a thought.