Winston Cigarette Man Alan Landers Dies From Cancer
We’ve heard of The Marlboro Man and Joe Camel, but never The Winston Man. But Alan Landers was apparently him, a male model who was the face of Winston cigarettes, appearing in magazine ads and on billboards in the Sixties and Seventies.
Alan Landers wound up leading a multi-million dollar crusade against the tobacco industry and was set to testify against cigarette manufacturer RJ Reynolds (a suit that was brought in 1995 and is only now going to trial).
But Alan Landers, who helped make smoking “cool,” also wound up with lung cancer and throat cancer. And he won’t testify next month because he died of cancer Friday at 68.
RIP.
Read about Brett Hudson’s winning battle against cancer and the American medical establishment here.
– TB
Landers worked as a spokesman for the World Health Organisation. Two other former Marlboro men, Dick Hammer and David McLean, died of lung cancer.
Said Landers, who was suing RJ Reynolds, the maker of Winston cigarettes:
They created the illusion that smoking was cool but they knew when I was doing the campaign that it caused lung cancer and that it was the most addictive drug the world has ever known,” said Landers, who endures daily radiation therapy near his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “They should be held accountable for killing people.”
His case followed a decision by Florida’s supreme court three years ago to reject a class-action lawsuit by 700,000 ill smokers and throw out a $145bn penalty against big tobacco.
In April, a new trial will feature about 9,000 individual claims.
Earlier this year, Philip Morris USA was found by a court of law liable for the 1997 death from lung cancer of smoker Stuart Hess.
Posted: 3rd, March 2009 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comments (7) | TrackBack | Permalink
