Here is an outrage. In the face of an epidemic of deaths from lung cancer, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. has introduced a new cigarette aimed specifically at young women. Dubbed "Camel No. 9," this meticulously designed brand is meant to evoke the allure of women's fragrances like Chanel No. 19" - or even that old song about romance, "Love Potion No. 9."

Women consume half of all cigarettes, and R.J. Reynolds wants more of that lucrative market. Presently, women are more likely to buy brands such as Marlboro or Newport rather than Camel, which, until now, has been seen as a macho cigarette, with only 30 percent female customers. Reynolds wants in. So Camel No. 9 has been designed with romantic young women in mind, and is packaged in both hot-pink fuchsia and minty-green teal. Its slogan is "light and luscious," and flowers surround packs of the cigarette in forthcoming magazine ads.

"What we're about is giving adult smokers a choice," said a high-minded spokesperson for R.J. Reynolds, "with products we believe are more appealing than existing products." The introduction of Camel No. 9 is part of the company's plan to "focus on products that are ‘wow,' that add fun and excitement to the category," she added

Investors are sharing in this fun and excitement. The New York Times reported: "Wall Street analysts praise the introduction of Camel No. 9, in regular and menthol flavors, as a further step by the R.J. Reynolds Company, a unit of Reynolds American, toward a new marketing strategy." Their goal is "to refocus on the biggest, most popular - and most profitable - brands, which include Kool as well as Camel."

This isn't the first time that young women have been targeted by the tobacco industry. In the 1920s, the American Tobacco Company urged women to "reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet," playing on a widespread perception that cigarettes are slimming. The author of that historic campaign was none other than Albert Lasker, who - with his wife, Mary - later took over the American Cancer Society!

In 1929, Edward L. Bernays, the father of public relations (who also happened to be Sigmund Freud's nephew), informed newspapers that women would smoke in public during Fifth Avenue's Easter Day parade. (It was decidedly risqué for women to smoke in public in those days.) The goal, this clever fellow told reporters, was to promote equality of the sexes.

You can look this up in the New York Times archives, as I did. The headline reads: "Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of ‘Freedom'." The article states:

"A group of young women, who said they were smashing a tradition and not favoring any particular brand, strolled along the lane between the tiered skyscrapers and puffed cigarettes."

Mr. Bernays failed to inform readers that he was paid for this "torches of freedom" promotion by the makers of Lucky Strike cigarettes. The women themselves were probably paid as well. Bernays implied that smoking, far from being just a nasty habit, was in fact an act of women's empowerment. This notion took root, and culminated in the Virginia Slims ads of the 70s, with the memorable slogan: "You've come a long way, baby!" All too often, of course, that "long way" ended in the pulmonology clinic of a comprehensive cancer center.

It is astonishing, in hindsight, to what depths advertising campaigns were prepared to descend in their attempts to link smoking and sexuality. For example, in one magazine ad from the thirties, a lightly clad woman coos, "Blow some my way" to a man smoking a Chesterfield cigarette. Ironically, they are both perched on a rock overlooking a vast expanse of ocean. The air looks fresh and crisp - but she is asking for a lung full of his second-hand smoke.

The Flintstones

For decades, ads for Chesterfield, Camel, Lucky Strike and other popular brands featured female celebrities like Lucille Ball, Marlene Dietrich and Barbara Stanwyck. Under pressure, it is said, from tobacco producers, even Wilma Flintstone, the TV cartoon character, smoked. (Her co-creator, William Hanna, later suffered and died of smoking-related throat cancer.)

If you are unable to view the graphic on the right, please click or go to:
http://www.cancerdecisions.com/images/flintstones_image.jpg

Since lung cancer has a very long latency period, the drastic effect of smoking on women's health didn't become immediately apparent. At the time when those misguided hirelings of Lucky Strike marched, defiantly smoking, in Fifth Avenue's Easter Parade, lung cancer among women was virtually unknown. However, in the past few decades we have begun to see the results of the widespread adoption of the smoking habit, especially among women from the Virginia Slims era.

TO BE CONCLUDED NEXT WEEK.

--Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.

References:

Peppercorn J, Blood E, Winer E, et al. Association between pharmaceutical involvement and outcomes in breast cancer clinical trials. Cancer 2007, Feb 26 [Epub ahead of print].