In 1998 my younger brother tells me over beers about an idea he has for a short film. It would be for his film class: a filmed advertisement for a fictional brand of tobacco shot like a fancy booze ad might be. Of course there have been cigarette television commercials but none in the last few decades in this continent, and none with the reckless abandon of today’s alcohol beverage advertising. The brand? Phelts. In early 2000 I ask my brother if he’d mind much if I bought the domain to develop the brand, in the fictional world, over the course of my career. He graciously agrees. ¶ Since that time I’ve used Phelts as one might a muse. Recently Tom Phelts popped up in Where do we go from here?
