'Redneck Woman' to keep tobacco under wraps

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Tennessee's attorney general had asked Gretchen Wilson not to pull out a can of smokeless tobacco during performances of her new song Skoal Ring because it glamorized tobacco use. A warning letter said the routine might violate the 1998 tobacco settlement, which forbids tobacco ads targeting young people.

Attorney General Paul Summers said the singer's representative apologized today and said Wilson would not use the Skoal can in concert again. It was not used at a Cincinnati concert Thursday night, his office said.

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It's possible that the reason I care at all about this is that I worked in Baytown for six years, and, well, redneck chicks have their appeal and all that. Putting aside any subconscious motivations I might have in blogging about the very hot trailer park diva Gretchen Wilson, however, still leaves a pretty weird story about a government official harassing an artist. Wilson, the story says, "has no relationship with" Skoal, and can in no way be understood to be advertising their "dip." How is it possible, then, for Tennessee's AG to imply a threat of legal action against Wilson? It's fairly easy to dismiss this as an example of anti-tobacco hysteria, which, as far as hysteria goes, is not unreasonable given the plant's massive death toll. However, the fact that the government has essentially bullied an artist into doing its bidding on dubious pretenses is quite disturbing.


"Redneck Woman" Gretchen Wilson

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