Anti-tobacco group targets advertising for organic cigarettes
Published: August 02, 2011
An anti-tobacco group has targeted again the advertising of a Reynolds American Inc. subsidiary that makesorganic-tobacco cigarettes.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids typically targets cigarette advertising it considers as overly appealing to youths.
In this case, however, the group is criticizing the environmentally friendly message of the ads for NaturalAmerican Spirit cigarettes by Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. The ads began in March in magazines such asField and Stream, Esquire, Mother Jones, Wired, Elle and Marie Claire.
The ads tout cigarettes "free of additives" and made in "earth-friendly growing programs" that have a lower impact on farmland and water. The ads also mention the company's use of recycled resources and attempts to lower its carbon footprint.
"After almost 30 years, we continue to push ourselves to being the most environmentally responsible tobacco company on the planet," the company concluded in the ad.
The advocacy group said Reynolds and Santa Fe are "once again deceiving consumers," particularly female smokers, with the environmentally friendly ads. It has asked Reynolds and Santa Fe to immediately pull the campaign.
"This is yet another attempt by a tobacco company to downplay how deadly and addictive cigarettes truly are, this time by marketing a cigarette brand as environmentally friendly," the group said in a statement. "There is nothing healthy or environmentally responsible about Natural American Spirit cigarettes or any cigarettes."
Seth Moskowitz, a spokesman for Santa Fe, said the ads "are clear and accurate characterizations of our products' attributes, and our company's long-standing commitment to reducing our environmental footprint."
"Our ads run in a wide variety of publications that are directed toward and read by adult men and women alike."
It is not the first time ads for the cigarettes have been disputed.
In March 2010, Santa Fe agreed to alter its marketing to specify organic tobacco does not provide safer tobacco or cigarettes for smokers. The settlement agreement involved the attorneys general of 33 states.
John Sweeney, the director of the sports-communication program at the University of North Carolina atChapel Hill, said the anti-tobacco criticism of Natural American Spirit had validity before the settlement agreement.
"It is easy to see that consumers could confuse the natural tobacco product as somehow a new and kinder style of tobacco," Sweeney said. "Any criticisms making sure consumers were utterly clear that natural tobacco was just like traditional, addictive tobacco are entirely appropriate. In fact, they're a public service."
However, Sweeney said he does not have a problem with Santa Fe advertising the company "as a kind of earth-sensitive way to smoke."
"A marketer has a perfect right to sell cigarettes in a politically-correct, love-mother-Earth-manner, particularly when there is support for that in the way the product is grown," he said. "I don't particularly think it will be a huge success in the marketplace."
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