"We are concerned that this advertising campaign is using aspects of popular culture, including independent music, art, motor sports, and 'hip' or [image-nocss] countercultural attitudes, to advertise Camel cigarettes in a way that is appealing to young people's psychological needs for rebelliousness, sensation-seeking, and risk-taking," the group said in a November 23 letter. It was written by Nebraska attorney general Jon Bruning and Arkansas attorney general Dustin McDaniel, co-chairmen of the group's tobacco committee.
The group also cited the 1998 tobacco settlement that prohibits the marketing of tobacco to youth. Those restrictions included a ban on Reynolds' use of the cartoon character "Joe Camel."
The campaign highlights 10 destinations including Las Vegas, San Francisco and New Orleans on special cigarette packs being distributed in December and January that feature colorful images of the cities and well-known landmarks. It also includes: Austin, Texas; Seattle; Bonneville Flats, Utah; Sturgis, S.D.; Route 66; Winston-Salem, N.C.; and Brooklyn, N.Y.'s Williamsburg neighborhood. Reynolds had taken the camel off of packages and encouraged smokers to go a special website to find the camel and win prizes.
RJ Reynolds, a subsidiary of Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Reynolds American Inc., said the campaign targets adult smokers.
Spokesperson Maura Payne said the company responded to the group's letter on Wednesday and said it would be happy to meet with the group, but it does not believe that the direct-marketing promotion violates its obligation under the 1998 tobacco settlement.
The promotion is "clearly very adult and very limited," Payne said.
State AGs were also joined by various state and local officials in some featured cities in recently demanding that Reynolds stop the campaign.
Washington Governor Chris Gregoire said in a statement last week that she was "alarmed and disappointed" by the marketing campaign that "exploits the name and image of Seattle to recruit young smokers." Some of the special edition cigarette packs feature landmarks in and around Seattle, including the Pike Place Market and Mt. Rainier.
In a letter to Reynolds in early November, New York City health commissioner Thomas A. Farley urged the company to stop the promotion, which includes scenes of Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood. "Your campaign threatens to undermine our recent gains by misrepresenting an addictive, lethal product as a passport to fun and independence," Farley wrote. "Promoting the idea that young New Yorkers can 'break free' and earn 'street cred' by smoking Camel cigarettes may be effective, but it is wrong."
Officials in San Francisco and other featured cities also have spoken out against the campaign, said AP.
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