SooToday.com's grossest picture ever (new material)

We took this photo this afternoon at Bawating Collegiate and Vocational Institute.

It shows Alan Landers talking to a gymnasium full of students.

If Landers' back looks a little, er, carved up, it's because he's survived lung cancer twice.

In 1988, a large part of his right lung was removed through one of those scars.

In 1993, he developed cancer in his other lung, resulting in the second disfiguring scar.

It's a gross picture, but Landers wants you to see exactly what cancer did to him.

Because back in the 1960s and 1970s, he was anything but gross.

Landers was the suave, stylish Winston Man, used by the R.J. Reynolds Co. in most of its print advertisements to create the illusion that smoking was stylish, pleasurable, and attractive.

It was all smoke and mirrors, he told students today at Bawating and Sir James Dunn.

In reality, Landers said, smoking sucks and what the tobacco companies tell you is lies.

SooToday.com photo coverage

Winston Man tells his story to Bawating students Inside Bawating, 3:26 p.m. (oversize image, use your browser's scroll buttons) Outside the school, 4:09 p.m.

To read Alan Landers' story in his own words, please click here.

**************************************************************** Completely irrelevant SooToday.com factoids

R. J. Reynolds' rival in the tobacco business, Philip Morris Inc., was represented by the Marlboro Man. Two Marlboro models, Wayne McLaren and David McLean, died of lung cancer. One (McLaren) spoke out publicly in favour of anti-smoking laws. The other (McLean) was required to smoke up to five packs per commercial take, "in order the get the ashes to fall a certain way, the smoke to rise a certain way, and the hand to hold the cigarette in a certain way." Those words are quoted from the lawsuit launched by McLean's widow and son, accusing Philip Morris of fraud, deceit, negligent misrepresentation, misrepresentation to consumers, breach of express warranty, and breach of implied warranty.