from The Very Best of David Wilcox
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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.

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© David Wilcox, all rights reserved.