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Winston's 'naked' ad campaign raising hackles
August 22, 1997
Web posted at: 7:01 p.m. EDT (2301 GMT)From Medical Correspondent Dan Rutz
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Joe Camel is barely cold in his cartoon grave and already there is another controversy over the advertising tactics of the tobacco industry.
At issue now is a new campaign for Winston cigarettes that touts them as "naked" -- that is, that they have no additives, just true tobacco taste.
Public health advocates are not amused by the clever campaign. They protest that the new ads imply a cigarette free of additives is safer than one with them, which they say is just not true.
CNN's Dan Ronan reports.
"What Winston's doing is making an implied health claim on cigarettes," says Paul Billings of the American Lung Association. "The American public believes that organic food --- all natural food, no additives -- does imply that somehow these things are better for them."
"We're saying that cigarettes are bad for you, whether they have additives or not."
"What Winston's doing is making an implied health claim on cigarettes."
— Paul Billings, The American Lung Association.
Other critics suspect that R.J. Reynolds is testing the new approach as a way of outmaneuvering tighter restrictions on cigarette advertising that are expected to be imposed on the industry. A simpler message, the argument goes, would be easier to sustain under the new rules.
R.J. Reynolds, however, denies that its intent is to make any health claims about cigarettes. It says the only benefits implied by the "no additives" campaign relate to taste, not health.
But the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society have petitioned the Federal Trade Commission, asking that the agency force the company to end the Winston campaign. They also want the FTC to impose stiff fines on R.J. Reynolds.
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