Thank You for Smoking

Originally published in 1994, Thank You for Smoking is a political satire novel centered around Nick Naylor, a lobbyist for the fictional Academy of Tobacco Studies, an organization founded by the tobacco industry with the true purpose of countering negative scientific data and public condemnation of tobacco. Nick’s job has made him a pariah, as he has humiliated everyone from grieving relatives of cancer victims to federal employees. He also must watch his back, as fellow Academy employees are after his job. His few friends are lobbyists for other controversial industries—gun and alcohol producers. Because he is erudite, good-looking, and resourceful, Nick is the darling of the talk show circuit. When someone tries to kill him, Nick’s situation goes from bad to worse. A bestselling book that was adapted into film in 2005, Thank You for Smoking examines Washington lobbying, unethical industry behavior, and the manipulation of public opinion. Author Christopher Buckley, the son of conservative political icon William F. Buckley Jr., is a well-known satirist and commentator on social and governmental issues.

This study guide cites the 2006 Random House paperback edition.

Content Warning: This book contains references to suicidal ideation and drug use, as well as depictions of kidnapping, a mass shooting, and an attempted murder.

Plot Summary

Chief tobacco industry spokesperson Nick Naylor attends the Clean Lungs 2000 conference in Washington, DC, where he faces off against 2,500 anti-smoking activists. Following this encounter, he goes to his office at the Academy of Tobacco Studies, where his boss, Budd Rohrabacker, or BR, accuses him of not earning the money he is paid to represent tobacco. BR tells him he must come up with a dynamic new plan to increase tobacco sales in three days. Nick eats lunch with the other two members of the Mod Squad: Polly Bailey, who represents the alcohol industry, and Bobby Jay Bliss, who works for the gun industry. The “Mod” in Mod Squad is an acronym meaning “merchants of death.” After lunch, Nick finds out he will appear on Oprah because the US surgeon general wants to ban all tobacco advertising.

On Monday morning, Nick presents BR with the concept of the tobacco industry working to create positive smoking placements in motion pictures. BR says he is unimpressed with Nick’s idea and tells him that Jeannette will replace him as the executive vice president in the next few days. While in Chicago to appear on Oprah, Nick discovers that he must sit next to a teenager who is dying of cancer attributed to smoking. Feeling trapped, Nick cracks a joke about wanting a cigarette and prompts the anger of a federal employee, who becomes so enraged he must be restrained. Because he acquitted himself so well, Nick becomes a celebrity among the pro-tobacco crowd—especially the “Captain,” one of the last remaining tobacco tycoons. The Captain summons Nick to the Tobacco Club in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, praises him effusively, and tells him he wants Nick to go to Hollywood and work on the cigarette placement idea, for which BR has claimed credit. Back in his office, Nick discovers that the Captain has doubled his salary. He has also given Nick permission to create a $5 million youth anti-smoking campaign, with the provision that it must not be successful.

Booked to appear on Larry King’s show, Nick finds out at the last minute that the other guest is Lorne Lutch, the former Tumbleweed Man, a long-time tobacco advertising icon who is dying of cancer and has become a strong anti-smoking advocate. Nick acquits himself, though one of the callers to the program threatens to kill Nick within a week. The next day, many in the industry congratulate Nick, and he receives a three-man security detail that he does not want. That evening, he meets Heather Holloway, an investigative reporter for the conservative Washington Moon who is intrigued by what she has learned about him. After a meal and conversation about Nick’s motives, they go to Nick’s apartment and have a romantic liaison.

After having lunch with the Mod Squad the next day, Nick visits Dr. Wheat, an osteopath who tries to help Nick relax in the face of all his stress. Following this, Nick goes to speak to Reverand Griggs, the headmaster of St. Euthanasia, the private school Nick’s son, Joey, attends. Griggs obviously dislikes Nick and the Academy but asks for a donation for the school. Nick eludes his security detail and tells Jeannette he is on his way back to work and will be there in 10 minutes. As Nick waits in line for coffee, an unhoused man approaches him and asks for a quarter. The man follows Nick up an escalator, puts a gun in his back, and forces him into a black limousine, where someone places a hood over his head. The limousine drives for half an hour to an unknown place, where Nick is dragged from the car and his clothes are removed. Men place stickers all over his body, covering him completely with nicotine patches. They take him to the mall and turn him loose, where two Park Police officers discover him. They call the paramedics, who save Nick’s life.

Nick wakes up in the hospital, where two FBI agents question him. He discovers that he is a hero to the tobacco industry and that there is an outcry against those who would try to silence someone simply because they disagree with him. Jeannette set up an interview for Nick with Katie Couric on the Today show, in which Nick lambasts nicotine patches for nearly killing him. When he gets out of the hospital and returns to work, Nick receives the assignment of talking to Lady Penelope Bent, the former prime minister of Britain, who is on retainer with the tobacco industry. He also learns he is going to Hollywood to speak to super-agent Jeff Megall about reintroducing smoking into the movies. Meeting for lunch, the Mod Squad’s members argue about which of their industries is most lethal and whether they will all need bodyguards. Nick talks to the Captain, who is in the hospital with heart trouble. The Captain asks him to take half of $1 million to Lorne in cash in hopes that Lorne will quit saying negative things about the tobacco industry. Jeannette asks to meet with Nick to discuss an idea she has for a new tobacco-related periodical. After supper together, the two go to Nick’s apartment and have sex, which Jeannette insists must be conducted in absolute darkness and using boxes of condoms.

After meeting with Lady Bent and tricking her into saying extremely supportive things on behalf of the tobacco industry, Nick heads out to California. Jeff sends a limo to pick Nick up from the airport and take him to an opulent hotel. The next day, Jack Bein, Jeff’s assistant, takes him to Jeff’s amazingly large office building and office suite where they discuss the placement of smoking in motion pictures. The Captain summons Jeff back to Washington because a senator from Vermont, Finisterre, aims to place a skull-and-crossbones image on every tobacco package. Nick learns that the FBI is investigating him, believing he may have faked his own abduction.

Nick appears on Nightline opposite the senator, where he points out that cholesterol from cheese produced in the senator’s state of Vermont is more deadly than tobacco: If tobacco must display a skull and crossbones, then so should Vermont cheddar cheese. As the FBI continues its investigation of Nick, BR informs him that they are going to hire a crack attorney, Steve Carlinsky, to represent him, though Nick has done nothing wrong and does not think he needs an attorney. Nick appears before Senator Finisterre’s subcommittee, where Senator Rudebaker from North Carolina holds up a fistful of death threats, all from Vermont, and tells Finisterre to tell his citizens to leave Nick alone.

Nick’s assistant, Gazelle, calls Nick at Bert’s to tell him that the FBI is coming his way. The two agents and a police officer show up at the restaurant and arrest Nick. They frisk Bobby Jay when he objects to what they are doing and find that he is carrying a concealed weapon in an ankle holster. They arrest him too. When Nick meets with Carlinsky the next day, he discovers that Jeannette has duped him by planting evidence implicating him in his own kidnapping. He confronts her in BR’s office. Though it is a bail violation, Nick flies to Winston-Salem, where the Captain is in the hospital, gravely ill. Nick spells out what he thinks has happened, and the Captain believes him. He says he will fire BR and Jeannette. Then, the Captain suggests that Nick plead guilty for the sake of the tobacco industry. Nick flies back to Washington and confronts BR and Jeannette, thinking the Captain will follow through with his plan but not realizing the Captain has died during the night. When Nick meets with Carlinsky, BR hires Carlinsky’s firm for the Academy, meaning the attorney can no longer represent Nick. Nick once again travels to North Carolina, this time to attend the Captain’s funeral. There, a deputy sheriff apprehends him and quickly hands him over to an FBI agent, who turns out to be the academy’s investigative officer, Gomez O’Neal. Gomez shares with him the information he has about “Team B,” hired killers who work for BR. He is very closed mouth about his sources and expects Nick to figure out how to deal with Team B.

After a discouraging period, during which he alienates the others in the Mod Squad and contemplates suicide, Nick recovers and comes up with a plan to get justice for BR and Jeannette. With the help of the Mod Squad, Nick tricks the leader of Team B into thinking that BR is trying to kill him. Soon afterward, BR is found dead from smoke inhalation at Jeannette’s apartment, and Jeannette has disappeared. The narrative concludes with Nick being interviewed by Larry King after serving two and a half years in prison for supposedly faking his own kidnapping and attempted murder. He says that he now works for an anti-smoking group, that he and Polly are married, and that they are expecting a child. He apologizes for all the lies he told while working for the tobacco industry.