By Wallace Kaufman Oct 14 (The GLOBE)
As millions of Americans turned on their television sets to watch the nation�s best professional baseball teams compete for the World Series they will see millions of dollars of advertising bought by Philip Morris to prove to Americans that the company has their best interests at heart.
According to press service reports the company�s vice president said, �For too long we have let others define who we are.� Americans think of Philip Morris as the company that created Marlboros and the Marlboro Man in order to get more people, especially the young, to smoke. Recent multi-billion dollar lawsuits against tobacco companies have presented strong evidence that Phillip Morris and other companies aimed their advertising at teenagers.
Only last month the Clinton administration sued tobacco companies for $20 billion that it says tobacco related illness cost the government to treat diseases related to smoking.
Phillip Morris also launched its first World Wide Web site on the Internet this week. Its advertisements and web site will emphasize that Philip Morris has an international business in foods and beverages. It owns the famous Kraft Foods and the Miller Brewing company that makes some of
America�s most popular beers.
Philip Morris also spends about $60 million a year on charity. It supports food aid to the hungry, programs to reduce wife beating and help women recover, and a campaign to inform young people on the dangers of smoking. The theme of the ads is �Working to Make a Difference.
According to a recent Associated Press story Philip Morris spends over $80 million on advertising.
DHAKA, Oct 7 (AFP)
The artists who have turned Bangladesh�s three-wheeler taxis and rickshaws into mobile canvases with their trademark flashes of bright colour, shapeless humans and animals are looking now for an accepted role in the art world.
The so far unheralded paintings adorning public transport are a talent onpassed through generations of Bengalis, with scenes ranging from soft erotica to birds, animals, simple village life and folk heroes.
Now 500 of the tin plate works of art, some measuring up to 2.4 metres (8 feet) by 3.6 metres (12 feet) have been taken from the vehicles and placed on display here at the Alliance Francaise de Dhaka.
�The paintings are so innocent because people behind the brush are very simple ... it�s their life,� said Shahrukh Shahid, who helped organise the exhibition.
Nasima Noor, a housewife who paints to help family earnings, believes her works speak the minds of �real Bengalis.�
�I mostly paint famous movie stars like Shabana, Shabnoor and even the late Salman Shah because taxi or rickshaw drivers go to the movies a lot ... they feel an affinity with such paintings.�
Most of the 83 artists on show learned their craft from their �Ostads� or gurus in small shops where they worked as assistants, while some like Noor were taught by their father.
They are popularly known as �paint mechanics� as they operate adjacent to taxi workshops.
Mohammad Jalal, a self-taught artist, says he never has any plans before he starts a work.
�I try to organise beauty and based on seven colours go on creating new colours to make my paintings interesting and as colourful as possible in most cases.�
Alliance Francaise de Dhaka director France Lasnier describes the collection as a kind of �Bangladesh heritage,� while the French Charge d�Affaires in Dhaka, Jean-Guy de Wargny, says the paintings �reflect the real feelings and mind of the Bengalis as they cover all aspects of the society.�
Both the crowds flocking to the exhibition amd leading Bangladeshi artists are full of praise for the �natural-artists� who have had no formal training.
�These artists have extraordinary talents without any institutional background and bring us lot of joy,� said celebrated artist Hashem Khan.
Added Ranjit Das, a well-known new generation artist: �A real trait of these paintings are the bright, attractive and warm colours and the details of every thing put on a plate.�
Mohammad Rinku, 20, from the Keraniganj area near Dhaka, was born into a family which has been involved with tin plate paintings for generations.
�Now my father, my sister and myself we all do the same work and since there is a growing competition we want to offer clients more pictures to choose from,� he said.
Operating from a studio in their small home, Rinku said that like most other �paint mechanics� their work brought in at least 8,000 Taka (160 dollar) a month.
On a daily average they painted five for rickshaws and two for taxis, with no fixed price by a ceiling of 150 Taka.
But at the exhibition some of the tin plate works are priced at several thousands takas and sales have been good.
The works are flat and the figures are disproportinate, but commercially and as folkart there is room in the art world for them to be commercially viable and gain international acceptance, Das said.
�If such shows and the patronage continue, then this unique work can be an addition to Bangladesh�s heritage in the world perspective.�
October 19, 1944 the Navy announced that black women would be allowed into Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (the WAVES).
October 19, 1950 United Nations forces entered the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
October 19, 1951 President Truman signed an act formally ending the state of war with Germany.
October 19, 1960 the United States imposed an embargo on exports to Cuba covering all commodities except medical supplies and certain food products.
October 19, 1977 the supersonic Concorde made its first landing in New York City.
October 20, 1968 Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy, widow of the late U.S. president John F. Kennedy, marries Aristotle Onassis, the Greek shipping magnate, in a ceremony held on his private island of Skorpios in Greece. The wedding, which comes less than five years after President Kennedy was fatally shot while sitting beside Jackie in a motor parade in Dallas, Texas, is the most glamorous and controversial event of the year.
October 20, 1994 The Pentagon announced that more than 100,000 US troops were being taken off alert for possible movement to the Persian Gulf because the Iraqi threat to Kuwait had abated.
October 21, 1945 women in France were allowed to vote for the first time.
October 21, 1961 tens of thousands of Vietnam War protesters marched in Washington DC.
The Kosteyev State National Museum. Exhibition of S. Kalmykov, I. Itkind, and V. Eifert�s works, and Rudolf Nuriev�s painting.
From 10.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. Closed on Mondays.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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