Posted on 08/25/2005 2:48:01 PM PDT by Crackingham
The state attorney general wants the country singer who made the song "Redneck Woman" a hit to stop "glamorizing" the use of chewing tobacco at her concerts. State officials said Gretchen Wilson can be seen on concert jumbo screens pulling a can of Skoal from her pocket while performing her new song, "Skoal Ring." That may violate the 1998 settlement between states and tobacco companies forbidding tobacco ads targeting young people, Attorney General Paul Summers said.
"Many young people attend your concerts and purchase your music and T- shirts," Summers wrote in a letter he sent to Wilson Thursday. "Because your actions strongly influence the youth in your audience ... I ask you to take steps to warn young people of negative health effects of smokeless tobacco use."
Calls to Wilson's representatives at her music label Sony Music Nashville were not immediately returned Thursday.
Wilson won wide acclaim and a Grammy with her debut single "Redneck Woman."
The title of her song "Skoal Ring" refers to the wear mark left by carrying a can of chewing tobacco in a pocket of blue jeans. In the final verse of the song, Wilson sings that she gets turned on by the taste of smokeless tobacco on her man's lips.
The landmark $206 billion tobacco settlement "provided that advertisements such as this would be and should be prohibited," Summers said.
That deserves a big fat, "EWWWWWW!".
Amazing...the Attorney General has morphed into the Surgeon General. Of course, once you enter government service you may intrude on all issues, regardless of your knowledge level.
Actually, we should relax. The AG is worried about a dip of snuff. This must mean all crime has ceased and we can take the locks off our doors.
Lets see. The state sues tobacco companies and enters into a settlement with them, and they are stupid enough to believe that the settlement between those two parties has any effect on the choices made by a private citizen, i.e. Gretchen Wilson?
Perhaps that Attorney General should go to law school.
Outstretched middle finger salute for him. This is America. Go arrest nonn-americans!
But if you want to sing about thugs, gang-bangin', drug-dealin', pimps, ho's or any other variety of urban criminal activity, that's perfectly a'ight becuase you be keepin' it real and representin' da streetz!
Somebody's going to lose this fight and it won't be Gretchen. She can sing what she wants, with the props that she wants, and unless Skoal is paying her Attorney General Paul Summers can just STFU.
Her latest video has everyone in the bar taking shots of liquor about every second. I've never seen anything like it...
Good thing its only Skoal. The ACLU would be after her too if it was Redman.
Gross! That's an uncouth and bizarre thing for a woman to do. Does she swallow the dark brown chaw juice or just spit globs all over the stage?
Oh, and the attorney general needs to shut the hell up.
RK Hubby ping ...
That Gretchen Wilson sure is purty ... I dunno about the Skoal thing though. Did it in high school and it was nasty to me then.
Skoal, Copenhagen, Kodiak, Red Man, Beechnut ... ah those were foul times.
You gotta read this one.................
Talk about abuse of powers regarding the MSA.
This guy is a crackpot - Gretchen Wilson is NOT a tobacco company - what part of that does Mr. AG NOT understand?
She just pulls out the can, she doesn't actually use it. Read it again.
It depends. EWWWWW if it’s Skoal or Happy Days or any other minty crap.
But Copenhagen satisfies…
Actually that stuff must be a pretty efficient nicotine/whatever delivery mechanism. I quit smoking once. I quit drinking once. I probably quit the Cope two dozen times over two decades before it finally “took.” (And did that because the crap popped up to $7.00/can - and I'm too cheap to pay it - at one point.)
An agreement entered into by state governments and tobacco companies is appliable to a singer? It's good to know that such an agreement supercedes the Constitution.
Just so I know, is Gretchen Wilson a tobacco company or an offical of the state of Tennessee?
Hey, I've got a really good idea that might solve a lot of the problems we seem to be having nowadays. I call it "free speech", and it basically means that you can say what you think - barring only threats and incitement to violence - and not be harassed or punished by the government for it. What do you think?
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