In 1992, David Goerlitz, an actor promoting R.J. Reynolds products asked an R.J. Reynolds executive why he didn't smoke.  He replied, "We don't smoke that shit.  We just sell it.  We just reserve the right to smoke for the young, the poor, the black and the stupid." - 1992 Deposition of David Goerlitz, see page 26.

Imagine being R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and in the nicotine addiction business, America's leading cause of premature death. How would you replace your share of the 440,000 U.S. nicotine addicts who annually smoke themselves to death, each an average of 5,000 days early? How would you trap and enslave their replacements?

Why not intentionally target African-Americans by creating a Kool mentholated music event that features black artists like Floetry, John Legend, Common, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, and Miri Ben-Ari? Why not give your round-up and harvest of young African-Americans a snappy name like "The New Jazz Philosophy Tour 2005"?

Why not create Kool magazine ads inviting readers to Kool.com to learn when and in which 14 cities the tour will appear but make it impossible for them to get into the website without first revealing critical direct marketing information such as their full name, mailing address, telephone number and e-mail address? Why not provide a toll free telephone number and then brow-beat them for direct access to their mailbox, telephone and computer?

Upon arrival at the event, why not give each concert goer a free pack of cigarettes or coupon? But would just one free sample pack be enough nicotine to permanently enslave a young unsuspecting music lover?

An ongoing WhyQuit smoking initiation survey shows that among smokers asserting that they can remember how many cigarettes they smoked before experiencing their very first physical craving for nicotine, 30% sensed it within smoking their first 3 cigarettes, and 22% say it arrived within just two days of starting to smoke. Amazingly, 66% contend that their first command to smoke occurred by the time they'd smoked their first pack.

Since 2000 Canada's required addiction warning label has read, "WARNING - CIGARETTES ARE HIGHLY ADDICTIVE - Studies have shown that tobacco can be harder to quit than heroin or cocaine." Sadly, there is no U.S. addiction warning label.

Do you think R.J. Reynolds will tell concert goers that its nicotine delivery devices are extremely addictive? Would it share that information anywhere on its website? Will it tell never-smokers that nicotine will cause eleven different regions of their brain to grow millions of extra acetylcholine receptors, that it will become physically desensitized or that nicotine will assume control over the flow of roughly two hundred of their body's neurochemicals? Does your answer trouble you? I hope so.

This isn't new ground for R.J. Reynolds. A September 1969 R.J. Reynolds report entitled "A Study of Ethnic Markets" reveals a conscious decision to use music to capture and enslave African-Americans. Here's a few quotes from this once secret R.J. Reynolds document.

"It generally is not as effective to aim at the Negro consumer as such, as it is to aim at his decisive motivations. The question, then, becomes what are his decisive motivations." "Quality rates as a cherished attribute. Negroes buy the best Scotch as long as the money lasts, most marketers agree" (page 9). "Any good strategy will create the music for the campaign theme in the sound of rhythm and blues, which is the primary format of Negro-oriented radio stations. The beat, the tempo, and the "feeling" of the "Soul" music is almost instinctively identifiable to the Negro ear which is accustomed to this sound" (pages 13-14).

R.J. Reynolds' "1984 Kool Operational Plan" was to promote Kools as "the best cigarette," along with an "image of self-assurance, confidence and control (cool)." "Prime targets are young adults, males and females, in that order." "Music events shall pay for themselves and their format shall emanate directly from the creative strategy (young, contemporary, ect.)" (page 2).

Page 13 of the 1984 Kool Operational Plan notes that "Kool's share of Black smokers has slipped from 48% in 1979 to a current 26.3%. Kool must continue to search Blacks through ethnic media."

Below are the locations and dates on which R.J. Reynolds is expected to be giving away free samples and/or coupons in an attempt to chemically enslave yet another generation of African-Americans. Will it succeed?

If you live in or near any of the below cities you can make a difference. Call the music forum and protest R.J. Reynolds mixing music and free nicotine in order to intentionally addict concert goers, alert the media, write a letter to the editor, find other visible means of legal protest, or put up nicotine addiction warning signs near the venue.

If possible, take a picture of R.J. Reynolds handing out samples of earth's most captivating chemical. E-mail the image to WhyQuit so that we can be seen here by all. The practices of ethnic marketing and nicotine sampling must end!

R.J. Reynolds is expected to bring free freedom-robbing nicotine to:

• Boston - Evolution, Thurs., July 21 and Fusion Sat., Oct. 8 for 21 and over at The Roxy
• Chicago - Evolution, Mon., Aug. 1 and Fusion Oct. 28 & 29 for 18 and over at the House of Blues
• Philadelphia - Evolution, Sat., July 23, and Fusion, Oct. 5 & 6, for 21 and over at The Electric Factory
• St. Louis - Evolution, Wed., Aug. 2, and Fusion on Mon., Oct. 31, for 21 and over at The Pageant
• Baltimore - Evolution, Mon., July 18 and Fusion, Oct. 3 for 21 and over at the Ram's Head Live
• New Orleans - Evolution, Wed., Aug. 10, Fusion, Thurs., Oct. 13, for 21 and over at the House of Blues
• Detroit - Evolution, Thurs., July 28 and Fusion, Mon. Oct. 24 for 18 and over at the Royal Oak Theatre
• Atlanta - Evolution Sat., Aug. 6 and Fusion Oct. 20 & 21 for 18 and over at The Tabernacle
• Miami - Evolution, Mon., Aug. 8 and Fusion, Mon., Oct. 17 for 21 and over at the Mansion
• Cleveland - Evolution, Mon., July 25 and Fusion, Mon., Oct. 10 for 18 and over at the House of Blues
• Houston - Evolution, Sat., Aug. 13 and Fusion, Thurs., Nov. 3 for 18 and over at Hush
• Milwaukee - Evolution, Sat., July 10 and Fusion, Wed., Oct. 26 for 18 and over at The Rave
• Dallas - Evolution, Mon., Aug. 15 and Fusion, Sat., Nov. 5 for 18 and over at the Gypsy Tea Room
• San Francisco - Evolution, Fri., Aug. 19 and Fusion Nov. 9 & 10 for 18 and over at The Fillmore
• Charlotte - Unplugged, June 23 for 18 and over at Tremont Music Hall
• Norfolk - Unplugged, Saturday, June 25 for 18 and over at The Norva.

Contact Info:

John R. Polito
Director WhyQuit.com

(843) 797-3234
john@whyquit.com

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• Black magazines found 9.8 times more likely than white magazines to contain ads for menthol cigarettes. Ethn Dis. 2005
• African-American menthol smokers are less successful with smoking cessation and menthol is suspected. Journal of the National Medical Association, September 2004
• As a result of breath holding that results from the stimulation of cold receptors by menthol there is a greater opportunity for exposure and transfer of the contents of the lungs to the pulmonary circulation. For the menthol smoker this results in a greater exposure to nicotine and the particulate matter (tar) of the smoked cigarette. This exposure can result in increased nicotine dependence and greater chance of tobacco-attributable disease. Preventive Medicine, June 2004
• Mentholated cigarette smoking significantly inhibits the metabolism of nicotine (clearance: 1289 versus 1431 ml/min, two sided, p = 0.02). Inhibition of nicotine metabolism occurred both by slower oxidative metabolism to cotinine and by slower glucuronide conjugation. Our data do not support the hypothesis that mentholated cigarette smoking results in a greater absorption of tobacco smoke toxins. Our finding of impaired metabolism of nicotine while mentholated cigarette smoking suggests that mentholated cigarette smoking enhances systemic nicotine exposure. Journal of Pharmacol Exp Ther., September 2004
• Not smoking menthol cigarettes was a predictor of successful smoking cessation among 535 African-American smokers. Preventive Medicine, April 2004
• Approximately one-fourth of all cigarettes sold in the United States are mentholated. Newport has become the leading menthol brand in the United States. Surveys from four nations indicate that menthol use among adult smokers is more common among females than males. Among U.S. smokers, 68.9% of Blacks, 29.2% of Hispanics, and 22.4% of Whites reported smoking a mentholated variety. Nicotine Tobacco Research, February 2004
• Menthol properties include cooling and local anesthesia, as well as effects on drug absorption and metabolism, bronchodilation and respiration changes, and electrophysiology. Many questions remain. Nicotine Tob Res. February 2004
• Over 70% of African American smokers prefer menthol cigarettes, compared with 30% of White smokers. This unique social phenomenon was principally occasioned by the tobacco industry's masterful manipulation of the burgeoning Black, urban, segregated, consumer market in the 1960s. Through the use of television and other advertising media, coupled with culturally tailored images and messages, the tobacco industry "African Americanized" menthol cigarettes. The tobacco industry successfully positioned mentholated products, especially Kool, as young, hip, new, and healthy. During the time that menthols were gaining a large market share in the African American community, the tobacco industry donated funds to African American organizations hoping to blunt the attack on their products. Nicotine Tob Res., February 2004
• The early warning symptoms caused by chronic irritation of the respiratory tract may be reduced in severity when the menthol found in a mentholated cigarette is continually delivered to the tract. CONCLUSION: This masking of the symptoms of an underlying respiratory disease can lead to delays in seeking medical attention resulting in a poor prognosis, additional suffering, and eventual death. Preventive Medicine, October 2003

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