Most of these characters were smoking cigarettes. This is simply a sham. I see this a lot in these movies and the fact is that high wage earners are generally not smokers. Just awful to push cigarettes like this. Shame on Hollywood for getting in bed with the tobacco industry.
shareSometimes the end credits will have a note denying getting any compensation for promoting tobacco, but you do have to wonder.
shareI see it in a lot of movies. It is the same thing with tattoos. Other than high end celebs, actors and athletes; Upper echelon people like doctors, CEO's and lawyers, do NOT get tattooed; Yet Hollywood portrays these characters as if they do in real life.
shareSome do get tattoos BUT let them where they will not be seen when they are in a professional setting
You see a lot of professionals wearing high neck sweaters, always with a shirt buttoned to the top,
Long sleeves --- Long Pants
Etc. Etc.
I think it is to make use of the public's stereotype of "smoke-filled rooms". Movies try more to connect with audience expectations and make it easy for them to jump to conclusions than they do for reality and truth. Only stupid people smoke these days.
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True, in the 50s or 60s it would have been realistic since smoking was considered glamorous then but by 2008 it was something that mainly lower-class people did. Also by then, most workplaces were smoke-free anyway.
A lot of people who otherwise wouldn't, will smoke when they drink.
I don't think this is "pushing" cigarettes on anyone. Do you think there's many people watching this movie that'd suddenly find themselves wanting to start smoking? Do you think that impressionable children are scrambling over each other to see a movie about the 2008 financial crisis?
People tend to notice what's important to them...and it sounds to me like the anti-tobacco sentiment is strong in you. I never understood that. Sure, smoking is bad for you. People are also getting machetes to the face instead of breakfast, somewhere near Darfur.
But other people are lucky enough to be riled up about 2nd...and now 3rd hand smoke, where even a whiff of a cigarette will send a nonsmoker into conniptions, glaring through a coughing fit.
Personally, I'm glad that fewer people are smoking these days, but its gotten a little silly, IMO. So much so that someone seeing someone smoke in a movie about the mortgage backed securities meltdown is suddenly convinced that its an big-tobacco recruitment conspiracy.
I hope you at least have a "Free Tibet" bumper sticker. Something...anything other than just this. Is all I'm saying.
I find it totally believable. I've worked for some of the large Investment firms and it fits a lot of the people I knew. I won't name the companies but there were two different types in upper management: The image-based type: Old-school, well educated from upper class families. Then there were the people in the trenches, even though they would move up to high positions, they were the ones that were responsible for sales. They were more like used-car salesmen, they had to "move the iron". They were the smokers. In the movie you'll notice this was also the older group of these people. The younger ones who were more jr. did not smoke.
shareTraders are a bit different, it is part of culture, at least according to what I read.
Swearing and vices are common, smoking is the least of it.