from The Very Best of David Wilcox

If you want some real contentment,
to live life at its best,
You can buy these dry tobacco leaves, to breathe into your chest
And then look up at the billboard, while all the promises come true, for you
You'll feel alive with pleasure, playful as a child
You've come to where the freedom is
You're cool and mild
You'll laugh with every lungful as the change comes over you
So look up at the billboard
See her smiling, sexy and tan
But the only one who's laughing is the advertising man
Those portraits of pleasure, of those who like to smoke,
They're laughing in the photograph, but we don't get the joke
Now why would they be smiling while they're looking down our way?
I guess they're making easy money climbing up the rungs,
From selling us a parasite that's feeding on our lungs
They must be laughing in astonishment that we believe the things they say
So look up at the billboard
See her smiling, sexy and tan
But the only one who's laughing is the advertising man
Now crack'll kill you quickly That's why it's got to go
They'll get more of your money if they kill you nice and slow
And the only one who's laughing is the advertising man

?© David Wilcox, all rights reserved