The virus has infected entire countries…

Coglione is a very vulgar term, today commonly used in Italy, recently also in the political field. The expression is not easy to translate into English. Coglione generally indicates a rather stupid, easily deceived person, idiot, fool, moron…

Big Tobacco is able to impose itself on a naive world without using any violence. It power intimidates without making threats, it isolates its enemies without committing any criminal act. Big Tobacco tries to conquer using clichés and peoplès fears, creating paradoxical situations with surprising results.

A fool can easily be conditioned by the presence of a great power of world business, in front of which he loses his critical sense and manifests all the brown-nosing that there is in him.

Big Tobacco does whatever it wants all over the world. And what we are really afraid of is that perhaps what allows this obscene state of affairs to continue may not be just secret political accords, nor Mafia intimidation and perhaps not even bribery.

It might be an example of a sort of madness that is hard to explain rationally, a sort of virus that can infect and paralyse entire countries starting right from their top levels, a madness that shrewd minds know how to exploit with innate skill.

Discover what kind of “coglione” you are

For each question, choose the answer that corresponds to the point of view or to the behavior that reflects your ideas.

1. Big Tobacco has been trying to hook you since you were a child, with subtle and cunning advertising messages; and none of the persons responsible has ever paid. Now that you are an adult, what do you do?

I refuse to support companies like this, so I stop buying their products.
I continue to buy the products of Big Tobacco; all this is probably a conspiracy against a great company. Philip Morris would never do a thing like that!
I continue smoking Marlboros and I encourage my children to smoke them and all the other people I know.
I think it is a mistake to change brands: I prefer to continue smoking the brand I’m used to, because today I’m an adult and what happened when I was a child is no longer important.

2. Philip Morris adds ammonia to increase your addiction to its products. What is your reaction to this?

I choose the products of other tobacco manufacturers, that do not use chemical cocktails to make me dependent on their products.
I continue to buy the products of Big Tobacco, all this is probably a plot against a great company. Philip Morris knows better than anyone else what it can add to its cigarettes.
I continue to smoke Marlboros because cigarettes that contain more ammonia taste better. I like them and I don’t care if they are more addictive.
I think it is a mistake to change brands and I continue smoking the brand I’m used to. Anyway, we breathe in so much smog and pollution every day that a little ammonia isn’t going to make any difference.

3. Big Tobacco has penetrated into the markets of third world countries with smuggling. What do you think about this?

I stop financing these criminals and no longer buy their products.
I don’t think Big Tobacco has done anything wrong, because business is business.
I support these criminals by buying their products.
I think it’s a mistake to change brands and I continue smoking the cigarettes of Big Tobacco. Anyway, I don’t live in a third world country, so smuggling doesn’t concern me. Moreover, whether I buy these cigarettes or not, it’s not going to change anything for the third world.

4. If the price you are paying today is much higher than the real value of the product, and if your money is being used to subsidize an army of brown-nosers who have contributed to create and defend the monopoly of Big Tobacco, what do you do?

I quit feeding these brown-nosers with my money and no longer buy the products of Big Tobacco.
Big Tobacco knows what it’s doing; if it bankrolls brown-nosers, it means that is the right thing to do.
I don't mind contributing to support brown-nosers buying the products of Big Tobacco.
I think it’s wrong to change brands; I continue smoking the cigarettes of Big Tobacco because I am well-off and I don’t worry about the prices when I buy something I want.

5. If you discover that, while you have to respect the Law or be punished, Big Tobacco seems to be completely uncontrolled by the Law; there are no sanctions for Big Tobacco and its men. What do you do in this situation?

Nobody can tell me what I have to do. I stop buying the products of those criminals. I can't stand being treated like a second-class citizen.
It doesn’t surprise me at all. Everybody knows that companies of that size get special treatment.
I trust Big Tobacco and its brave managers. What they do is none of my business.
I look at this situation realistically; Big Tobacco is a powerful force and I am nobody. I can’t change the world and changing my cigarette brand wouldn't make any difference.

6. A number of significant confidential documents of the makers of Marlboro, surfaced during legal proceedings in the USA They show how the company bought up scientists, set up learned societies and infiltrated respected institutions. Philip Morris did this to hook you. What do you do?

I stop buying Marlboros and follow the legal litigations with interest.
I'm not surprised: bribes have always been used in business transactions, and they are still common.
Big Tobacco knows what it’s doing. If it has maneuvered to cover up useless alarmism that could cause stress in consumers, it did this in my interest, and I thank them by buying their products.
I'm sorry about the difficulties this glorious company has run into in its business; I avoid hasty decisions and useless worries that do no one any good, and I support the company buying its products. Changing brands at this point would be a choice dictated by a lack of sense of responsibility.

7. When you smoke a Marlboro cigarette in public, how do you feel?

I feel like a “coglione”.
I want to go to a more secluded place.
I feel like a cowboy.
I feel fine and I smoke the entire cigarette without any problems. I believe I’m a free person; I don’t let anybody influence me in my personal choices.