Pack Mentality

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If you’re ever in Beverly Hills enjoying a cigarette break, don’t be surprised if Rocky Rosen hands you a leaflet. He’s just “guerilla marketing” for his home-based anti-smoking business.

It’s called Rocky Rosen’s Free-for-Life program, and he claims it will make you stop puffing.

The 56-year-old Oak Park resident’s concept grew out of his own experiences as a two-pack-a-day smoker for more than 20 years. Eventually he was able to stop, but only through an unusual process of reasoning.

“Most people think they have to convince themselves that they don’t want to smoke, but the truth is they do,” Rosen explained. “So I show them how to use those urges rather than repress them.”

So how does it work? Through a series of 90-minute meetings conducted at a client’s home over four days for a sliding fee of up to $7,500 he tries to teach customers how to remain comfortable with their urges, yet hate cigarettes.

“The first thing I ask them is who they are stopping for. If they say it’s for anybody but themselves, I don’t take them,” Rosen said.

At least one former customer, Fred Wehba Jr., vice chairman of Los Angeles commercial real estate firm Bentley Forbes, said he quit on the second day after Rosen made him aware of how much time and money he was wasting on smokes not to mention the deleterious health effects.

“Basically it’s just a lot of education,” said Wehba, 37, who smoked one and a half packs a day for 22 years until quitting in October.

The biggest challenge for the anti-smoking entrepreneur, who relaunched the business in 2007 after a break of several years, is getting the word out something he pursues four to six hours a day.

Rosen’s tactics include hanging out at doctors’ offices, where he makes a quick pitch and hands out reference letters, including one from a Century City doctor who’s referred several patients.

Rosen also distributes brochures to smokers on the streets of wealthy communities such as Beverly Hills, Malibu and Pacific Palisades, as well as leaving cards in public ash trays and on windshields.

“I have very little overhead,” Rosen explains. “The main costs are gas and mileage on my car.”

His tactics seem to be working; in the last six months, Rosen said he’s gone from seeing one client a month to between four and eight without incurring the wrath of any irritated smokers.

“Nobody has thrown an ash tray at me yet,” said the crusading businessman, “but the day is still young.”

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