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This poll survey presents two recent R.J. Reynolds magazine advertisements and invites readers to explore their aim. This first full-page ad appeared in the August 30, 2004 issue of "People" magazine at page 10. Examine it closely and then compare your observations with those of others.

The above full-page R.J. Reynolds ad appeared in "Time" magazine on July 19, 2004 on page 81. The resolution of this scanned image lacks detail. The original says "Camel," "Pleasure To Burn," "The official blends of summer - for a limited time only," and shows two new flavors of Camel cigarettes "Kauai Kolada" with "Hawaiian Hints of Pineapple & Coconut" and to the right "Twista Lime" "A Citrus Tiki Taste Sensation!" To the left of "Kauai Kolada" is a coconut drink with two straws and an umbrella in it. To the left of "Twista Lime" is half a lime and behind it what appears to be a raspberry. The ad discloses that both brands release an average of .9 mg of nicotine and 11 mg. of tar per cigarette, as measured by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's smoking machine.

Are the Marketing Messages True or False?

• Is smoking nicotine really an adult free-choice activity? If the brain reward pathways of 90% of adult smokers and 70.7% of teen smokers are already chemically addicted to smoking nicotine under DSM standards (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) then is it honest for marketing to portray smoking as a "choice" activity? Isn't "choice" "addiction's" antonym? If already hooked solid -- and rarely changing brands -- then why all the pretty colored store displays that would naturally lead youth to believe that smokers cannot wait for the sun to rise so that they can run down to the store and try the newest flavor?

  Has the tobacco industry intentionally created the illusion of choice? Is it not false and highly deceptive to foster a marketing image that the decision to start smoking nicotine is being made by intelligent and mature adults when the tobacco industry knows that ninety percent of adult smokers became hooked while children or teens? Why not send the honest message that it is highly unusual for any mature person to decide to take-up smoking?

• What adventure might smoking nicotine hold for the teenage smoking boy or teenage smoking girl who quickly becomes hooked at a very early age and spends the balance of life as nicotine's slave? Imagine the adventure of having a lung ripped out and trying to learn to live without it. Imagine the adventure your loved ones will experience if you join the 50% of adult nicotine smokers who smoke themselves to death.

• Do smokers really smoke for flavor?  How many taste buds are inside your lungs? Smokers don't suck smoke deep into their lungs because they like a particular flavor or smell. It's just more junkie-thinking that billions in tobacco industry advertising has conditioned them to believe. They do so because it's nicotine's amazingly quick eight to ten second path to the addict's brain via their bloodstream. Try to find even one cigarette smoker who does not suck the smoke deep into their lungs. What other flavors can you think of that are loved so much that they are sent to the lungs instead of the tummy?

• New friends? Look around. Nicotine is so powerful that most smokers you see today leave their human friends at least hourly to be with their new friend, the cigarette. Their lives are constantly being interrupted by a new alarm clock that governs mandatory feeding times - nicotine's two-hour chemical half-life. Over time they will gradually grow to realize that they are most comfortable in those environments which allow them to be surrounded by other other nicotine addicts who fully appreciate their endless need to feed.

• "Pleasure to burn?" The above ad invites you to steal the neurochemical reward your brain normally releases each time you successfully accomplish a task - the "aaahhh" pleasure feeling you probably first noticed when mom or dad pointed out that you had colored between the lines. Once you become a neurochemical thief, stealing dopamine that should have been earned and adrenaline intended for emergencies, you'll likely return to steal again and again and again. Your constant stealing will quickly lead to your brain making a host of physical changes to de-sensitize itself to nicotine and a true chemical addiction will be born. Now any attempt to stop using nicotine will likely generate a world of hurt filled with powerful anxieties. It will lead to tolerance, requiring you to smoke more and more to obtain the same effect. It may soon lead to neurochemical roller-coaster burnout and long-term teenage depression, and open a gate that will very likely have you trying other drugs in order to steal more dopamine.

  Pleasure? What pleasure is there in being forced to constantly wear the chemical waste dump stink of the more than 500 gases, 3,500 chemical particles, and 43 cancer causing agents present in every burning cigarette, and having it announce your arrival as you walk through life? What pleasure is there in quickly coating your lungs in a layer of tars that will deprive you of ever again engaging in lengthy periods vigorous physical activity, and deprive you of up to 30% of your lung's functional capacity? What pleasure is there in any teenager never again experiencing the joy of being able to comfortably run like the wind? What pleasure is there in having the constant burn of 4,000 chemicals quickly deaden your sense of smell and taste?

  Pleasure? What pleasure is there in being manipulated by creative, colorful and inviting advertising into toying with what may be earth's most captivating chemical, and by far its most deadly? What pleasure is there in daily being chemically compelled to stand in front of your nicotine peddler's counter and slap-down more hard-earned money to destroy more of your body's ability to receive and transport life-giving oxygen? What joy is there in the daily demoralization of beginning to believe that it might be impossible to stop committing slow suicide, while knowing that tobacco executives are smiling as dying dollars flowing from dependency, decay, and disease continue to arrive?

  Pleasure? Take a quick look at the thousands upon thousands of nicotine addicts here, here, here, and here who are today battling hard to stop stealing their own neurochemicals and again become comfortable earning them. Why are some extremely excited while others are deeply depressed? The challenge is so tremendous that nearly half of adult nicotine smokers actually smoke themselves to death, each losing an average of about 5,000 days of life. Pleasure? Is this really the life for you?

"We do not encourage nonsmokers to start smoking."

"We do not want children to smoke, not only because it is illegal to sell cigarettes to minors in every state, but also because of the health risks and because children lack the maturity of judgment to assess the risks."

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company

III. PERMANENT RELIEF

(a) Prohibition on Youth Targeting

No Participating Manufacturer may take any action, directly or indirectly, to target Youth within any Settling State in the advertising, promotion or marketing of Tobacco Products, or take any action the primary purpose of which is to initiate, maintain or increase the incidence of Youth smoking within any Settling State.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company

Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), November 1998, Agreement Page 15, PDF Page 22

Additional R.J. Reynolds Marketing Insights

• February 25, 2004 - Order of the California Court of Appeals that R.J. Reynolds intentionally targeted California 12 to 17 year-olds in violation of MSA - California Court of Appeals, 57 page PDF file

• June 6, 2002 - California Superior Court fines R.J. Reynolds $20 million for targeting California 12 to 17 year-olds in violation of MSA - California Attorney General's Office

• November 1999 - Winston's "No Additives" Campaign: "Straight Up"? "No Bull"? - survey of smoking habits - Public Health Reports, Jeffrey Jensen Arnett

• March 3, 1999 - FTC Accepts Settlement of Charges that Ads For Winston "No Additive" Cigarettes Are Deceptive - U.S. Federal Trade Commission