Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society

Presentations

Since giving his first public presentation on “The Killer Habits” on WAGA-TV Channel 5, Atlanta on October 7, 1974 as a medical student at Emory university School of Medicine, Alan Blum, MD has been invited to give over 2000 presentations on counteracting the promotion of unhealthy products, with a focus on the tobacco industry and its allies. Using humor, satire, and parody in variations of his signature talk, “Medicine vs. Madison Avenue: Fighting Smoke with Fire,” Dr. Blum has educated and entertained audiences in every state and in over 20 other countries, including more than 100 medical schools. But his presentations aren’t intended to preach to the converted. They explore the defeats of the anti-smoking movement as well as its triumphs; the decades-long fear and foot-dragging of academia, the mass media, and medical societies in confronting the purveyors of cigarettes, alcohol, and junkfood; and the failure to put their money where there mouth is to purchase counteradvertising messages. Click here to view a selection of Dr. Blum’s presentations  at the University of Alabama’s College of Community Health Sciences.