Tobacco Articles: category mediapublishing

HOPKINS: Uninformed Friends of Big Tobacco : | Florida Injury Lawyer Blog

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT

A Palm Beach Post reporter wrote in yesterday's paper something about which he clearly knows little or nothing. The title was: "What part of 'hazardous' don't smokers get?" This is a story criticizing smokers and casting judgment on those smokers who have sued Big Tobacco; the "Engle" plaintiffs. It seems evident to me this reporter clearly spent no time researching and brought an entire collection of "baggage" into his article. The only tangible piece of information the reporter provides is that his parents smoked and "…they were lifelong slaves to -- and, ultimately, victims of -- the habit." This statement certainly demonstrates facts, but completely misses the mark on any shred of insight. The reporter apologizes for knocking "a possibly dying woman as she struggles for her next breath", but he clearly knows nothing about the case, trial, or facts of the lawsuit filed by Cindy Naugle. This reporter also must have no respect for the intelligence of jurors who after hearing weeks of evidence, must have been outraged by the conduct of Big Tobacco, causing them to render a $300 million verdict. All of this demonstrates at least one central issue. Before "dashing off" this article, want of any facts, the reporter could not have done even a modicum of research. Before criticizing an entire class of people, perhaps he should try researching and reading, just a little. . . . For those who who want to know facts about Big Tobacco and not hyperbole, I recommend the following sites:

Recent Cigarette Marketing Campaign Targeted Teen Girls

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT

The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) prohibits tobacco industry advertising practices that encourage underage teenagers to smoke, yet new research out of the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego has found that a 2007 marketing campaign for Camel brand cigarettes was effective in encouraging young girls to start smoking. The study, led by John P. Pierce, PhD, professor of Family and Preventive Medicine and director of the Cancer Center's Cancer Prevention and Control Program, will be published March 15 in an early online edition of the scientific journal Pediatrics. The research, part of a national study on parenting practices, involved 1,036 males and females who were 10 to 13 years old when enrolled onto the study. Between 2003 and 2008, scientists conducted five telephone interviews, which included questions about smoking. The fifth interview was conducted after the start of RJ Reynolds' "Camel No. 9" advertising campaign in 2007.

AUDIO: UCSD Researcher Finds Cigarette Ads Targeted Teen Girls

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT

A new study from UCSD finds a 2007 marketing campaign for Camel cigarettes was effective in encouraging teenage girls to smoke. The ads apparently violated a tobacco industry agreement that prohibited companies from targeting kids. The ads for Camel No. 9 ran in five of the most popular magazines among teen girls, including Glamour and Vogue.

Camel No. 9 cigarette ads are a big hit with teenage girls: study

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Fashion magazine ads for Camel No. 9 cigarettes scored such high marks with girls ages 12 to 16 that a year after they appeared, 22% of the girls in a new survey listed Camel as their favorite brand of butt, according to USA Today. Nearly half of the 1,036 tweens and teens in the study, published online in Pediatrics, could name a favorite cigarette ad. Nonsmoking teens who can identify a favorite ad are 50% more likely to take up smoking as other kids, says the study. Some 80% of smokers start lighting up before age 18. Camel No. 9 was launched in 2007, and promotional giveaways featured berry-flavored lip balm, cell phone jewelry, wristbands and purses, according to the study. The ads for the cigarette ran in magazines like Vogue, Glamour and Cosmopolitan.

Teen Girls Say Pink Camel in Cigarette Ads Caught Their Eye : Study finds link between catchy ads and whether teens smoke

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Although the 1998 settlement agreement between big tobacco and state governments restricted advertising to children and teens, nearly half of teenage girls participating in the study could name their favorite cigarette ad. What's more, the study found that teenagers who could name a favorite cigarette ad were 50 percent more likely to have smoked during the five-year study period. One ad campaign in particular stood out in the minds of teen girls and increased their awareness of cigarette advertising, the study found. The product was Camel No. 9 cigarettes, and the ads featured a pink camel and a sub-brand of cigarettes called Stiletto. In addition to the very feminine ads placed in such magazines as Glamour and Vogue, the campaign also featured promotional giveaways, including flavored lip balm, purses and cell phone jewelry. "These are the same people that brought us Joe Camel, a very big campaign with multiple different components," said study author John Pierce, a professor of family and preventive medicine and director of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego. "Now it seems like what they're doing is trying a campaign, and then when people complain, they change and do something else."

Recent Cigarette Marketing Campaign Targeted Teen Girls, Study Reveals

spence@harbar.net — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Cigarette Ad May Have Targeted Teen Girls: Survey Suggests Camel No. 9 Ads in Magazines Caught the Attention of Teenage Girls

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT

In a national survey of teens conducted soon after ads for the R.J. Reynolds brand Camel No. 9 appeared in leading women's magazines, 44% of the girls could name a favorite brand, based on advertising. Their average age was 15. In previous surveys, about 10% fewer girls named a favorite cigarette advertisement. The increase in the latest survey was almost exclusively for the Camel brand. The landmark 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between states' attorneys general and the tobacco industry prohibits all tobacco marketing aimed at children and teens. Since the agreement, the smoking rate among teens has dropped dramatically, from 35% to about 20%. R.J. Reynolds strongly denies marketing to teens, but longtime tobacco trends researcher John P. Pierce, PhD, who led the survey, disagrees.

Did Camel Ads Encourage Teen Girls to Smoke?

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Does your teenage or college-age daughter read fashion magazines such as Glamour or Vogue? Does she smoke? If the answer to both of those questions is yes, she may have been influenced by a series of advertisements for Camel cigarettes that appeared in those and other magazines in 2007, a new study suggests. The four largest tobacco companies in the United States—including R.J. Reynolds, the maker of Camels—are prohibited from "directly or indirectly" marketing cigarettes and other tobacco products to young people, following the terms of a multibillion settlement the companies entered into in 1998 to compensate 46 states for tobacco-related health costs. But according to the study, which was published this week in the journal Pediatrics, R.J. Reynolds seems to have evaded the terms of the settlement by devising a marketing strategy that—deliberately or otherwise—successfully caught the eye of teen girls and probably encouraged them to smoke.

Study: Camel No. 9 cigarette ads appeal to teen girls

accuracy@usatoday.com (Liz Szabo, USA TODAY) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT

A recent marketing campaign for Camel cigarettes appears to have attracted the interest of teen girls, a study shows. The ads for Camel No. 9 cigarettes -- which ran in magazines such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Glamour -- were a hit with girls ages 12 to 16, says a study of 1,036 adolescents published online Monday in Pediatrics. Promotional giveaways for the new brand, which was launched in 2007, included berry-flavored lip balm, cellphone jewelry, purses and wristbands, the study says. David Howard, a spokesman for R.J. Reynolds, which makes Camel, says the ads were aimed at adults, noting that 85% of the magazines' readers are over 18. . . . But the ads were clearly noticed by teenagers, says study co-author Cheryl Healton, president of the anti-smoking group the American Legacy Foundation, which interviewed teens about their awareness of cigarette brands. In 2008, within a year of the ads' debut, 22% of girls listed Camel as their favorite cigarette ad. That's twice the number who listed Camel as their favorite in four earlier interviews taken for the study. That suggests that it was the new campaign -- not older Camel products -- that captured girls' attention, Healton says.

ANDERSON: Tobacco's reappearance in advertising, films and TV shows may seduce a new generation into its clutches – or maybe not

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Elle Macpherson's ex and Uma Thurman's on-off fiancé appears in the latest Harper's Bazaar in a photograph that simply reeks of animal magnetism, all because of the addition of a single prop: a lit cigarette. . . . The tragic fact, however, is that cigarette manufacturers have proven themselves adept at capturing the hearts and soon-to-be-blackened lungs of millions of men and women through the power of a simple image. In the 1920s, when tobacco barons were concerned that only men were picking up the habit, thus depriving them of half the market, they organised photographs of suffragettes smoking what were described as "torches of freedom". Smoking was immediately wrapped up with the image of rebellion. It was an idea furthered by James Dean in his portrayal of definitive teen angst in Rebel Without A Cause, whose poster saw the star cradling a lit cigarette, making them an obligatory accessory for disaffected youth everywhere. Of course, it is hard to rebel when a behaviour has been adopted by the masses. The irony is that our aggressively no-smoking culture could be the petri dish for a new generation of rebels. Certainly Ash Scotland, the anti-smoking charity, is concerned about the new vogue for images of celebrity smokers and the negative effect they could have on the younger generation. . . . Although cigarettes still exude an edgy glamour, especially when pressed between the pursed lips of a skinny model, we only have to look at one of their loyal disciples, Kate Moss, to see how she has aged beyond her non-smoking peers. The damage smoking does is seen every day by Dr Darren McKeown, one of Scotland's leading aesthetic medical practitioners, with clinics in Glasgow and Harley Street. . . . Anti-smoking lobbyists would like to see all films which feature smoking slapped with an 18 certificate, but even if they are successful the beguiling glamour that confronts the reader with the flick of a magazine page may still remain.

LETTER: SHATENSTEIN: [For most, a cause for national pride] ... for others, not so much perhaps : A cigar isn't always just a cigar

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Re: "Our champions deserve a little fun" (Editorial, Feb. 28) Maybe you're right to term Hockey Canada's apology "fatuous," and it might seem churlish to criticize a celebration, but, cigars? Imagine that Canada's women's hockey squad passed around a joint at centre ice, just to show a little joyful camaraderie. Sure, it's not legal, but all the kids do it, right? How about a straw up the nose, hovering over some ice shavings, simply miming a snort of cocaine. Nothing illegal, just a little prank. Still cool with that? Sure, cigar use is legal and no one's health was gravely imperilled by a single smoke, but it's worth reading a little about the grisly death of Sigmund Freud before deciding a cigar is really just a cigar. What the women really don't need is to share the habits of knuckle-dragging macho men who still associate cigars with success and dominance.

Barack Obama Smoking

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Status: Fake (composite) Technique of Fakery: Composite Images. Date and Time Period: Circulating online since early 2008; (2005-Present) Themes: Politics Barack Obama has admitted to being a smoker, though before he launched his presidential campaign he resolved to quit the habit. (By his own admission, he has had a few lapses.) Nevertheless, there are hardly any photos of him smoking, largely because his campaign makes great efforts to stop such photos getting out, fearing negative public reaction. In early 2008 the top photo began circulating online, showing Obama with a cigarette in his mouth. It is not real. The original photo (bottom) was taken by Kwame Ross on Aug. 3, 2004 while then-State Sen. Obama met with constituents at the University of Illinois while campaigning to become a U.S. Senator. An unknown hoaxer digitally added the cigarette into the photo.

Continuing pattern, Fox Nation posts "hoax" photo of Obama smoking

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Discussing President Obama's recent medical check-up, which reportedly noted that Obama "has not kicked the smoking habit," Fox Nation posted a doctored photo of Obama with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. As the Museum of Hoaxes notes, the photo is a "fake" spread during the 2008 campaign. From The Fox Nation:

Dispatch: PLoS and NYT vs. Money; FDA vs. Flavor; Hype(r)tension: Facts & Fears

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Medical Journal Gives Up on Evaluating Science Today the editorial staff of PLoS Medicine, a peer reviewed, open access journal published by the Public Library of Science, declared, "While we continue to be interested in analyses of ways of reducing tobacco use, we will no longer be considering papers where support, in whole or in part, for the study or the researchers comes from a tobacco company." . . . "It's true that tobacco companies knowingly deceived their customers for many years," says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. "We can name a few activist groups funded by other interests that have also distorted science to suit their agenda. Still, it's the twenty-first century now, and there are many tobacco products - be they smokeless tobacco or lozenges - that may be used to help people quit smoking. Who but the tobacco industry that produces these alternatives is going to fund research concerning their safety and efficacy? And while smoking is decidedly bad for anyone's health, are the PLoS editors going to ban research supported by other disfavored industries - beverages, pharmaceuticals, who knows what others? - in the near future?"

The tobacco company Star Scientific Inc. filed an application with the FDA to allow its dissolvable tobacco "lozenge" to be certified as less harmful than traditional forms of tobacco. . . . The requirement to prove that it's good for the overall health of the country is a poison pill for the approval process, since doing so would have to be based on assumptions that are impossible to make. We hope the FDA approves it, but it is perhaps ironic that one of the brands seeking approval is called 'Stonewall,' because that may be what the FDA does to them and, sadly, to cigarette smokers looking for a less harmful alternative." "It's also significant that the lozenge is wintergreen flavor," says Dr. Ross. "Opponents will say that they will attract young people, despite the overwhelming evidence to indicate that these products are not a gateway to cigarettes. The default legislative mechanism is always against anything related to tobacco."

Ohio smoking ban net cost $2M

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Newly released Ohio Department of Health figures show the state has spent $3.2 million to impose $1.2 million in fines on violators of Ohio's smoking ban. Republican state Sen. Bill Seitz of Cincinnati says the state's $2 million net cost of enforcing the law is money that would be better spent on education, health care or other programs. The health department provided the numbers on a request from Seitz, a critic of the ban and a smoker himself.