State accuses tobacco company of targeting teens

By The Associated Press

04.24.02

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SAN DIEGO — A trial opened this week in a lawsuit filed by the state of California accusing R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. of violating the 1998 national tobacco settlement by running ads in youth-oriented magazines.

Holding up a copy of Spin magazine with an ad for Camel cigarettes on the back cover, Deputy Attorney General Karen Leaf said the nation's second-largest tobacco company should be punished for having "aimed its advertising at teens by advertising in magazines that teens read."

Reynolds denied trying to sell cigarettes to teen-agers. A Reynolds attorney said the company limits ads to magazines that are aimed at people older than 21 and have a youth readership of less than 25%.

The 1998 legal settlement with 46 states and the major tobacco companies makes no specific mention of magazine advertising but includes a ban on the companies taking "any action, directly or indirectly, to target youth." The outcome of the lawsuit hinges on Superior Court Judge Ronald Prager's interpretation of that phrase. He is hearing the case without a jury.

If Prager imposes advertising restrictions on Reynolds, they would apply only in California. But other states are expected to pursue similar limits. And it would be expensive, perhaps prohibitively so, for Reynolds to tailor media campaigns for individual states, said Dennis Eckhart, an assistant state attorney general.

The California trial is expected to last a month.

The state is asking that Reynolds stop advertising in magazines with a large teen-age readership, including Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Hot Rod and Allure. The lawsuit also seeks a fine of millions of dollars.

Reynolds, based in Winston-Salem, N.C., said that its ads may appear in magazines seen by people under 18 but that is not the same as targeting a youth market.

The company opposes further restrictions in "the last mass medium left to the tobacco industry for ads," said Jeh Johnson, a lawyer for the company. The company's intended target audience for such magazine ads is existing smokers older than 21, Johnson said.

Reynolds had U.S. sales of $8.6 billion in 2001. It has about 25% of the American market through brands that include Camel, Winston, Doral and Salem.

Update

Tobacco firm fined $20 million for ads targeting teens
R.J. Reynolds' spokesman says California judge's ruling disregards First Amendment.  06.07.02

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