Tobacco.org

• Suit Alleges Cancer Worse From Cigarettes 

The son of a woman who died of lung cancer is planning to sue the cigarette maker that gave her free samples when she was a girl, contending the giveaways were aimed at black children.

The lawsuit against Lorillard Tobacco Co., maker of Newport cigarettes, is thought by legal experts to be the first to accuse a tobacco company of targeting black children. It is to be filed Monday in Suffolk Superior Court, The Boston Globe reported in its Saturday editions.

Marie Evans, in interviews with lawyers before she died in 2002 at age 54, said as a child she would get free sample packs of four to 10 Newport cigarettes from a company van that regularly came to the Boston housing project where she lived. . . .

Norman Black, the creative director for the advertising agency that promoted Newport from 1974 to 1992, said his ad campaigns were geared toward young people, though not necessarily blacks, since they smoked Newports in large numbers anyway.

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