THE "WINSTON MAN"
Alan Landers, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization, was a former "Winston Man". He is also a professional actor, model and acting teacher. He appeared on billboards, in magazines and on television holding Winston cigarettes and Tiparillo cigars, urging others to smoke.
A smoker himself, he was expected to portray smoking as stylish, pleasurable and attractive. Never was he told by R. J. Reynolds that cigarettes could be dangerous to anyone's health, including his own.
Alan now understands the hazards of cigarettes and regrets promoting these lethal and addictive products. He is a two-time lung cancer survivor, having first been diagnosed in 1987, undergoing surgery that year and again in 1993. The surgeries left him permanently disabled with chronic shortness of breath. In 1997 he had double bypass heart surgery.
Alan now devotes himself to the fight against cancer and other tobacco-caused illness, and especially to urging young people not to smoke. He calls for tobacco products to be regulated as the addictive drugs they are and for tobacco companies to compensate their victims.
Alan's testimony has been published in the Congressional Record. He expects to go to trial against the tobacco cartel in Palm Beach, Florida later in the year 2000.
Page last updated April 24, 2002