Forget taste and decency.
The propaganda value of the death of a well-known long-term smoker is far more important, it seems.
In January Joe Cocker's death, at the age of 70, was marked by some pretty distasteful tweets by anti-smoking campaigners (see Dick Puddlecote on the subject, Death as a PR opportunity).
The death last week of Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy has generated a similar reaction.
Nimoy was suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), allegedly from decades of smoking.
I don't doubt the connection (although the LA smog may have been a contributory factor, who knows?), but there are two things to note:
One, Nimoy died at the age of 83. The average life expectancy for a white American male is 76 years.
I don't know where Nimoy lived but the state with the best average life expectancy for a white American male is the District of Columbia at just shy of 81.
He might of course have lived in pain and discomfort for many years. Again, I don't know.
What I do know is that he was only diagnosed with lung disease in February 2014, at the age of 82, one year before he died, at which point he began urging everyone to quit smoking.
Nimoy's death at the ripe old age of 83 will come as no consolation to his family, but let's get it in perspective. He was an old man who appears to have lived a long and extremely full life.
That hasn't deterred the tobacco taliban of course, hence these tweets this morning from ASH:
What Killed Spock: Leonard Nimoy killed by cigarettes he gave up 30 years ago http://t.co/2w8×0Mova3
— ASH (@ASH_LDN) March 2, 2015'Don't smoke. I did. Wish I never had. LLAP', Leonard Nimoy
— ASH (@ASH_LDN) March 2, 2015