WASHINGTON -- Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has written a letter to Deborah Platt Majoras, chairperson of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), urging the FTC to investigate advertising practices used by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. for its Camel No. 9 brand of cigarettes, which he and other senators claim is being marketed to children, especially young girls.
"The tobacco industry, R.J. Reynolds included, has engaged in a systematic campaign to hook kids, especially young girls, on cigarettes," Harkin said. "While the tobacco companies claim they changed their [image-nocss] marketing practices after the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) with the states in 1998, studies reveal that they have not. They have instead continued to aggressively target girls and young women, among others, with their advertising. Camel No. 9 is just one more example of this."
R.J. Reynolds launched the brand in February. It has said the cigarettes are aimed at adult female smokers, added an Associated Press report.
According to AP, anti-smoking groups and others have argued that the productfrom its name, which recalls an upscale perfume, to the packaging to the adsappears designed to lure teens or young women. The cigarettes come in black boxes with a border of teal or fuchsia. They are advertised in women's magazines under the slogan Light and Luscious, on textured paper adorned with images of red roses and lace.
Earlier this year, Harkin co-sponsored the Family Smoking Prevention & Public Health Protection Act, legislation that would provide the federal Food & Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to regulate the sale, marketing and advertising of tobacco products.
(Click the Download Now button below to view the full text of the letter, also signed by Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa; Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.; and Dick Durbin, D-Ill.).
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