Summaryof a Essay of the New Times York

“Tracing the Cigarette’s Path From Sexy to Deadly “
By HOWARD MARKEL, M.D.
Published: March 20, 2007

From the early 1900s to the 1960s cigarettes were a cultural icon of our society. Between the 1930s and 1950s smoking means sophistication and glamour and marketing companies showed us advertising campaigns about the virtues of cigarettes: it become in a sexy style of life, a healthy act.

The main problem was that in the 1930s , when many Americans began smoking and especially women who wanted to smoke, the effect of the cigarettes hadn’t yet developed. For this reason the scientific studies didn’t evidence a serious health risk.

In 1950 a prominent surgeon (Evarts A. Graham) published an article about the relation between smoking and the lung cancer, but the tobacco companies didn’t care about it because they though these studies as mere anecdotes of casualty. The reality was other: disinformation campaigns and the belief that everyone knew cigarettes could be dangerous; it was only a personal choice.

In the 1980s scientists established the revolutionary concept that nicotine is extremely addictive but the world of the marketing tried to look for a new generation of smokers.

From 2004 to nowadays some American judges have concluded that the tobacco industry have engaged in the last 40 years about tobacco’s health dangers. Do you think it’s true?

Why do women have to choose?

It’s so sad when the women have a baby they have to choose between to look after their children or their professional life. In my case, after I’ve been studying during five years a degree and others studies like a “master” and after years of work experience, perhaps one day I can be in this situation. I think it’s terrible.
I hope I can avoid this problem with a good organization. I don’t know. What do you think about it? I don’t understand why this situation it’s not the same for men.

The power of the Coolhunters

A coolhunters are people who identify new styles and sell their talent convincing to the companies that their elitist styles are mass potential fashion.

They move around a spiral: when “last thing” approaches the “current thing” and this fact triumphs, more evasive the new thing turns and therefore the services of coolhunters become more necessary to identify the scant top trends. On the other side, it’s necessary companies which turn the feeling of the trendspotter in a mass reality.

There are diverse categories of coolhunters, with different levels of commitment and experience:
- “Gurus”: they receive enormous quantities of money for reports (about fashion, decoration, food, etc.) that they sell to big multinationals.
- “Observant people”: They observe in the street and they receive check-gifts for informing about theirs sensations. They travel constantly to the vanguards capitals in search of the last thing in streetwear.

In any case, it isn’t sufficient with having intuition or being creative to be a good coolhunter. They have to dominate concepts of art history, communication, psychology, scenery, sociology, marketing and graphical and industrial design.

In Europe the name of reference in the professional coolhunting world is Nelly Rodi. She is the founder of the consulting with her name who offers services of creative advices to companies as L’Oreal from 1985.

In Spain we have Daniel Córdoba who created the past year in Barcelona the consultancy “The Hunter”, with 12 local professional and 8 correspondents for the world: Madrid, Bilbao, Valencia, London, Paris, Berlin, New York and Tokyo.

To satisfy the increasing demand of these professionals, we can find postdegrees in coolhunting. There aren’t excuses to accede to this profession. You can avoid to be “uncool”!