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• 'Rolling Stone' Fights Claim It Misappropriated Indie Bands' Names to Promote Cigarettes 

Fending off accusations it misappropriated the names of more than 185 indie rockers to promote cigarettes, Rolling Stone magazine on Thursday appeared to have one appellate justice solidly in its corner.

However, two votes are needed to win and one justice was absent during oral arguments in San Francisco's 1st District Court of Appeal. The third didn't tip his hand.

Rolling Stone was sued last year by a class of indie bands -- led by the San Francisco Bay Area's Xiu Xiu and Toronto's Fucked Up -- who claimed the magazine had traded on their names by using them in a November 2007 graphic/article juxtaposed with a four-page, fold-out advertisement by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. that touted Camel cigarettes and the manufacturer's collaborations with indie groups. . . .

Nonetheless, the bands claim Rolling Stone intentionally used their names to help R.J. Reynolds sell Camels and that the ad implied the bands endorsed the product.

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• Lily Allen flouts French smoking ban in Paris as she performs in a plunging leotard 

Lily Allen showed her rebellious side last night as she flouted France's smoking ban on stage in Paris.

In between verses, Lily puffed away on a cigarette as she performed in a skimpy leotard at the City of Light's Le Zenith venue.

But the 24-year-old singer provided a distraction from her smoking with her slashed-to-the-navel leotard. . . .

Lily has publicly declared her love of smoking, so it's unlikely she'll be quitting any time soon.

She said: 'I love smoking… I don't really want to say it, but I do.' . . .

While Lily doesn't appear to be too worried about the health affects of smoking, she admitted she suffers from mild arthritis.

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• Fair play urged for smoking ban  

A LEADER of one of the teams that will enforce Shanghai's coming smoking control law wants to completely ban tobacco use inside KTV parlors, video arcades, pubs and other entertainment venues.

"The law should ensure fairness. There should be no difference in smoking control among different rooms inside a karaoke bar or elsewhere in the industry," Lan Yiming of the Shanghai Culture Market Administrative Law Enforcement Team said during a public hearing yesterday on the draft measure.

Without a blanket ban, he fears his agency and the others handling enforcement will have a difficult time persuading people to stop smoking in one area when they see people lighting up in another nearby.

Lan was among the 20-plus people brought together by Shanghai People's Congress to give their views on the issue. Law makers may amend the draft based on what they heard yesterday as they continue discussion of the proposal. Their goal is to enact the measure by the end of the year, well in advance of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, which starts on May 1.

Under the plan, smoking would be banned inside schools, hospitals and public places such as cinemas, museums, banks, malls, airports, railway and bus terminals and many privately owned businesses. Smoking would be allowed only in special areas in bars, restaurants and entertainment venues.

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• Call for complete smoking ban in karaoke bars 

SHANGHAI legislators should completely ban smoking inside karaoke bars, restaurants, pubs and other entertainment venues, suggests the head of the city's cultural industry watchdog.

There should be no smoking rooms allowed inside these venues because a partial ban would make it difficult to enforce properly, said Lan Yiming, vice director of Shanghai Culture Market Administrative Law Enforcement Team, today.

He called on lawmakers to incorporate his suggestions into Shanghai's first anti-smoking laws due to take effect in January.

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• Tobacco warning from 17th Century 

Doctors in the 17th Century were worried about the dangers of young people smoking, a recently unearthed letter has revealed.

The letter, written in 1606 by Dr Eleazar Duncon, said tobacco was "hurtful" to the nation's youth.

It was found by library staff at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE).

The Scottish Parliament will this week debate new proposals to curb tobacco and cigarette sales to youngsters.

Dr Duncon's letter reveals medical professionals were similarly concerned about the issue four centuries ago.

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[Tobacco] is so hurtful and dangerous to youth that it might have the pernicious nature expressed in the name, and that it were as well known by the name of Youths-bane as by the name of tobacco.
Recently-found letter by Dr Eleazar Duncon which was published in Scotland in 1606.

• Carter Albrecht's family suing Pfizer over stop-smoking drug  

A federal lawsuit has been filed in Dallas on behalf of local musician Carter Albrecht against Pfizer, the maker of the stop-smoking drug Chantix.

Albrecht was shot and killed September 3, 2007 while banging on his neighbor's door. Albrecht had been drinking.

Albrecht's girlfriend, Ryann Rathbone, said he had become increasingly erratic after he started taking Chantix to quit smoking. She said vivid, often frightening dreams were an immediate side effect.

After using the prescription medication for a week, Rathbone said Albrecht began hallucinating, lashing out at her physically and verbally.

A News 8 investigation revealed thousands of similar reports of potentially dangerous psychiatric side effects. Pfizer later added a black box label, warning of serious neuropsychiatric side effects.

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• Blu Cigs President Won't Confirm Product in Sex Tape 

In response to a surge of inquiries, blu Cigs president Jason Healy said he will not confirm the speculation by Gawker.com that the mystery cigarette in the Eric Dane/Rebecca Gayheart sex tape which emitted a blue ember but didn't burn was in fact, the company's signature electronic cigarette.

"Our client records are confidential. We respect the privacy of all our clients, not only high profile ones."

Blu Cigs are known for the distinctive blue light that glows when the cigarette is drawn on. They have become popular with smokers in the film, television and music industries as they can be used in indoor no (tobacco) smoking environments such as sound stages and recording studios as there is no ash and the vapor emitted won't bother non-smokers and will not harm sensitive equipment.

Healy adds, "With current and stricter new restrictions coming on the use of traditional cigarettes, blu Cigs provide smokers with a better alternative cigarette experience without the bothersome secondhand smoke."

In response to whether an electronic cigarette such as blu is safe for use in a bathtub, Healy said, "While we would not recommend use in an environment like that, there's no problem if it were dropped in the water. It would have to be dried out sufficiently before using again."

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• Industry gimmick to entice youth to smoking  

Questions have been raised whether the Tobacco industry has resorted to distributing free cigarettes in order to promote the habit of smoking among youth.

The Chairman of the National Authority on Tobacco & Alcohol (NATA) Prof. Carlo Fonseka in a letter to Daily News refers to an incident which took place in front of a restaurant in Colombo as an example, which was personally witnessed by NATA officials, and describes it as a fragrant violations of the NATA Act.

According to Prof. Fonseka around 8.00 pm on July 28, NATA officials after being alerted had visited and witnessed the free distribution of cigarettes by a group of about 10, including young women in front of a restaurant in Fife road, Colombo 5.

The activity had been carried out to the accompaniment of loud music calculated to draw maximum attention. . . .

Thus Prof. Fonseka points out that this incident was a clear violation of the Act No.27 of 2006 and that relevant officials should take prompt action to bring the violators to book and take steps to prevent a recurrence of such incidents in the future.

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• Camel violated ban on using cartoons to sell cigarettes, judge rules 

The four-page Camel cigarette ad in Rolling Stone magazine two years ago was a surrealistic journey to a place called "Camel Farm," where a woman with a retro hairdo sprouted from a green field; where a gramophone, a disembodied hand and a trippy tractor drifted through the air.

It was meant to connect Camels with alternative music, and the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company argued it was far from Joe Camel, the Disneyesque spokescharacter of yesteryear that got it in so much trouble.

But a state Appeals Court ruled Monday that the company nonetheless violated a ban on using cartoons to sell smokes. Now a King County Superior Court judge may have to decide what sanctions the company will face for its ad.

"The Camel Farm imagery depends entirely upon the suspension of the laws of nature," Appeals Court Judge Anne Ellington wrote in the ruling. . . .

However, the court also ruled against the state's contention that a Rolling Stone feature that ran alongside the ad, and also included cartoons, was not R.J. Reynolds' fault.

Assistant Attorney General Rene Tomisser said he was gratified by the ruling because it affirms the state's contention that "it doesn't have to be a cartoon directed at kids ... Any cartoon fits the bill," he said.

Still, it's unclear what, if any, penalty Downing could impose on R.J. Reynolds now.

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Under a blue sky in a pastoral Eden, roosters hitch rides on floating tractors, speakers grow out of the ground and radios fly. This is in a world where the natural laws do not obtain, where cancer and serious health problems can cease to exist. For a product known to cause both, such a world is a potent sales device.
Appeals Court Judge Anne Ellington, on RJR's "Camel Farm" ad in Rolling Stone.

• State Of Washington, App. V. R.j. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Res.  

The chief question here is whether a Reynolds advertisement in the November 15, 2007 edition of Rolling Stone violated this prohibition. A secondary question is whether Reynolds had a duty to ensure the adjacent content within the magazine did not violate the cartoon prohibition.

The trial court ruled the Reynolds advertisement did not violate the cartoon ban and that Reynolds did not cause Rolling Stone's use of cartoons in the editorial content enfolded by the advertisement. The court also ruled that because the Rolling Stone cartoon material was unforeseeable, Reynolds had no duty to prohibit its use.

The State appeals. We affirm the ruling that Reynolds is not liable for the Rolling Stone content. But we hold that Reynolds' advertisement violated the settlement agreement. We therefore reverse.

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• Wash. court: Cartoon cigarette ads broke agreement 

For the second time in two months, a court said Monday that an advertisement RJ Reynolds placed in Rolling Stone magazine broke the tobacco industry's 1998 settlement with the states by using cartoons, and the company will have to pay damages.

The Washington state Court of Appeals overturned a lower court's finding that content Reynolds produced for the 2007 Rolling Stone advertisement did not include cartoons.

Though the photographic images weren't Disney-style illustrations, the appeals court said they were cartoonishly arranged in a bucolic collage. The theme of the "Camel Farm" ad campaign was that Reynolds was helping to support - grow - independent music.

At least eight states - Maine, Ohio, California, Illinois, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Washington - sued the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based company after the fold-out advertisement appeared in one of Rolling Stone's special 40th anniversary issues. . . .

The Maine and Ohio judges sided with the company and California came back with a split decision. In May, a Pennsylvania judge became the first to hold Reynolds liable, ordering the company to pay $302,000 or run a full-page anti-smoking ad in Rolling Stone. Reynolds vowed to appeal.

Washington's court said Monday that Reynolds couldn't be held liable for content produced by Rolling Stone without the company's knowledge, but that the company's own content fell within the settlement's cartoon prohibition, aimed at restricting the tobacco industry's ability to market to young people.

The decision overturned a ruling by King County Superior Court Judge William Downing

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• Record deals offered for soccer songs  

Since rising band The Nunung Cs successfully popularized a soccer-themed song titled "S'pakbola" (soccer) and ended up with a record deal, possibilities have opened up for other over-18s to follow in the same direction.

Earlier this month, the six-crew pop-dangdut band officially signed a contract with cigarette producer PT Djarum Super which had discovered their original song, "Gila Bola Gila Musik" (crazy for soccer, crazy for music), on Facebook.

"S'pakbola" has now become the official song of the Indonesian Super League, Indonesia's top-tier soccer championship.

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• GM Place defends safety record after Britney Spears halts Vancouver performance 

A major Vancouver concert venue was left defending its safety record Thursday after pop star Britney Spears temporarily halted a live performance blaming a “ventilation issue” allegedly brought on by cigarette- and marijuana-smoking fans.

“At no time was there or has there been any concern for the quality of the air or the safety of the guests in the building,” said Harvey Jones, vice-president and general manager of arena operations at GM Place. . . .

Jones said it was never really clear exactly what the problem was, adding concern about smoke onstage was just one of several explanations given to arena staff by Spears’ tour managers.

“We heard a number of different versions, all of them centred around air quality,” he said.

Jones said air-quality monitors measuring carbon-dioxide emissions and temperature gauges were all functioning normally Wednesday night, with no unusual readings noted.

Concern from staff over excessive smoke in the arena was also not reported, he said.

Smoking is banned inside the arena, as it is in all public spaces in Vancouver. However, Jones said it was impossible to fully enforce the policy, particularly during a crowded concert.

“People do come in and they do light up smokes … It’s part of the [concert] culture,” he said.

Smokers who are caught in the act are immediately told to butt out, while those reluctant to obey the rules face possible eviction, he said.

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• Marlboro MXBeat Concert Series Defies Mexico's National Tobacco Control Law 

International and Mexican public health leaders today harshly criticized Philip Morris for its sponsorship of a four concert series entitled Marlboro MXBeat that unquestionably appeals to youth and violates Mexico's national tobacco control law and urged the Mexican government to act quickly to stop these concerts by enforcing its new national tobacco control law.

The Mexico national law explicitly prohibits the tobacco industry from any form of sponsorship that promotes tobacco products or tobacco use, yet the Marlboro MXBeat concerts are being heavily promoted and advertised by Philip Morris and the Mexican government has failed to act. The failure of the Mexican government to enforce its own laws puts Mexico's youth at risk and undermines respect for the rule of law.

The Philip Morris concerts are being heavily advertised and are taking place in four of the main cities in Mexico, including Guadalajara, Puebla, Monterrey and Mexico City. The concert series - which features a variety of music groups including the hugely popular N*E*R*D, Vampire Weekend, Girl Talk and recent Grammy nominee Nortec, appeal widely to Mexican youth. Promotional materials for the concerts include advertisements in magazines such as Chilango and GQ, billboards, a promotional Web site, and blogs.

The Marlboro MXBeat concerts and their promotion clearly violate Mexico's national General Tobacco Control Law

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• Cigarette ads are `just business' for Nidji 

The members of pop-rock band Nidji have broken their silence over a protest by the National Commission for Child Protection about the band's involvement in a TV cigarette ad.

In their defense, Nidji said they had no intention at all to indirectly call Indonesian children to smoking, as claimed by the commission.

"Appearing in the ad doesn't mean we are calling people to smoking," Velle, Nidji's manager, said on behalf of the whole band. "There's no such a call in the ad; we're just being the models."

Velle was quoted by detik.com as saying that appearing in the ad was just about business.

"We're doing business through music; we're part of showbiz," Velle said, adding, "Therefore, our decision to take the ad offer was only for commercial purposes - for money."

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We're doing business through music; we're part of showbiz. Therefore, our decision to take the ad offer was only for commercial purposes - for money.
Velle, business manager for Nidji, an Indonesian band with many fans among children, in response to a protest by the National Commission for Child Protection over Nidji's involvement in a TV cigarette ad.