Secret memos show cigarette-maker targeted teens

RJR insists it did nothing wrong; Clinton says settlement 'imperative'

January 15, 1998
Web posted at: 3:40 p.m. EST (2040 GMT) In this story:

• What the memos say
• 'A sophisticated plan'
• Young smokers: 'tomorrow's business'
• Related stories and sites

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The tobacco industry has been caught in a lie, according to newly unveiled secret memos. They show that R.J. Reynolds, despite past denials, aimed its advertising at teen-agers and developed strategies to lure young smokers away from competitors.

Such planning resulted in the hip Joe Camel campaign and even a special brand aimed at boys.

President Clinton seized on the documents as evidence that Congress should pass legislation to implement a proposed national tobacco settlement.

"I've called for strong bi-partisan legislation to reduce smoking, especially by young people," Clinton told reporters on the White House lawn on Thursday before leaving on a trip to New York. "The documents ... show more than ever why it is absolutely imperative that Congress take action now to get tobacco companies out of the business of marketing cigarettes to children."

R.J. Reynolds says the documents -- some of them 20 years old -- were taken out of context. "Our documents reflect the social attitudes at the times in which they were created," the nation's No. 2 cigarette maker said in a statement.

The company also insisted it had evidence that one memo contained a typographical error, and should read 18- to 24-year-olds, not 13- to 24-year-olds.

"Smoking is a choice for adults and marketing programs are directed at those above the legal age to smoke," the statement said.

What the memos say

Among the documents:

• A 1987 memo stamped "RJR Secret" that says the company created the Camel Wides brand under the code name Project LF. It was a "wider-circumference nonmenthol cigarette targeted at young adult male smoker (primarily 13-24-year-old male Marlboro smokers)." Camel Wides eventually were sold.

• A 1973 marketing memo says that to help lure "younger smokers" away from Philip Morris' Marlboros, the leading teen brand, "comic strip type copy might get a much higher readership among younger people than any other type of copy."

  The document defined "younger smokers" as those ages 14 to 24 -- and shortly thereafter, RJR created the hip cartoon character Joe Camel, who peddled the Camel brand until last year.

  Joe Camel

• "Our strategy becomes clear for our established brands," says a 1974 presentation to RJR's board of directors. "Direct advertising appeal to the younger smokers."

• While RJR has always insisted that teens smoke because of peer pressure, not because of advertising, a 1986 memo says Joe Camel advertising "will be directed toward using peer acceptance/influence to provide the motivation for target smokers to select Camel."

  RJR ended the successful Joe Camel campaign last year, but has always denied that it was targeted to minors.

Waxman

'A sophisticated plan'

The memos were released by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, who said they provide the first detailed look at how R.J. Reynolds spurred youth sales. "These documents," he said on Thursday "... show us that RJR's most senior executives developed and implemented a sophisticated plan to market their cigarettes to our children."

"The documents also fundamentally conflict what the sworn testimony we received from the chief executive officer of RJR just a few years ago before the Congress of the United States," he said.

Waxman is a member of a congressional committee considering the proposed national tobacco settlement that would end most lawsuits against cigarette makers and grant the industry partial immunity from future litigation. It would also have to pay $368.5 billion and take steps to reduce teen smoking.

Waxman said he would urge Attorney General Janet Reno to conduct a perjury investigation because the documents appear to conflict with RJR executives' 1994 testimony before Congress about their marketing practices.

Top tobacco industry executives have been invited back to Congress later this month to go over the settlement proposal.

Young smokers: 'tomorrow's business'

Investigations into the tobacco industry have produced repeated evidence since 1994 that various cigarette makers attempted to target underage smokers -- and RJR competitor Liggett Group even admitted the charge last year.

But the new papers provide the first detailed look at RJR, showing a company worried about future profits because its chief competitors seemed to have locked up the youngest smokers.

"This young adult smoker, the 14-24 age group ... represents tomorrow's cigarette business," says a 1974 RJR marketing presentation that declared it financially vital for RJR to steal back some of those smokers.

RJR provided the papers under a $10 million settlement of lawsuits brought by California cities that had accused Joe Camel of targeting teens.

Correspondent Dan Rutz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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