Brace For Yet Another Devious Offensive

The tobacco industry is finally being seen for what it really is. Even longtime friends are recoiling in disgust as internal documents, many of them hidden for decades, detail the loathsome tactics used by the industry to lure children and others into the lethal habit of smoking.

Each day, approximately 3,000 kids take up smoking, according to the National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids in Washington. One-third of those youngsters eventually will die of a tobacco-related illness. Anyone who has had a relative succumb to lung cancer or throat cancer knows the death can be agonizing.

Top tobacco executives have always denied, frequently under oath, that they ever marketed to children. Executives at R.J. Reynolds, the makers of Camels, have been especially insistent in their denials. The spectacularly successful Joe Camel cartoon character was never meant to appeal to children, they said.

Now we learn that a 1975 R.J. Reynolds memorandum declared: “To ensure increased and longer-term growth for Camel filter, the brand must increase its share penetration among the 14-24 age group, which have a new set of more liberal values and which represent tomorrow’s cigarette business.”

A 1972 memo from the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., makers of Kools, floated the idea of adding sweet flavors like apple or Coca-Cola to products. “It’s a well known fact that teenagers like sweet products,” the memo said. “Honey might be considered.”

Some years ago, a model named David Goerlitz told me that, while posing for a Winston ad, he had asked a group of R.J. Reynolds executives if any of them smoked. He said one of them replied: “Are you kidding? We reserve that right for the poor, the young, the black and the stupid.”

Over the last few weeks we have gotten a glimpse of the ways in which R.J. Reynolds targeted blacks. Internal company documents released by Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat and dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, included the following observations:

“Blacks appear less concerned about health related issues (this may carry over into less concern about the alleged health concerns of smoking …). They also tend to buy less things to improve themselves and are more prone to buy on impulse.”

“The majority of blacks (relatively small upper middle class excepted) do not respond well to sophisticated or subtle humor in advertising.”

“Quality rates as a cherished attribute. Negroes buy the best Scotch, as long as the money lasts. …” The poor, the young, the black and the stupid.

Now, the tobacco companies want to make a deal. They want immunity, absolution for all their sins. Suddenly they’re very sorry.

But with the recent public disclosure of reams of damning documents, some of them potentially incriminating, the sentiment on Capitol Hill for a deal is slipping away. Even Congressmen from tobacco country are keeping their distance.

It is becoming increasingly likely that Congress will soon pass some tough anti-tobacco legislation, including a substantial increase in cigarette excise taxes, that is not linked to a settlement with the industry or any promise of immunity.

Desperate for a deal, the tobacco industry has mounted a new campaign, replete with the requisite confidential documents. A memo dated Dec. 22, 1997, and stamped “Privileged and Confidential” outlines a strategy for the industry to follow.

Noting the “mounting opposition” to a settlement, the memo says: “It is therefore imperative that the companies begin to address Americans through an array of means, including paid advertising, direct contact and free media.”

One of the campaign’s goals, the memo says, is “to create momentum and pressure for our package. Make politicians feel that failure to act positively on that package runs political risks because the voters will punish them.”

Voters are to be told that a “new day” has arrived and the tobacco companies are “changing the way we do business.”

At the top of the “target audiences” cited by the memo are “soccer moms.”

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