EDITORIAL – No “butts” about it, Camel ad is harmless

Attorney general offices in eight states, including Pennsylvania, are planning to file… Attorney general offices in eight states, including Pennsylvania, are planning to file lawsuits against the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company for running an illustrated Camel advertisement in the Nov. 15 edition of Rolling Stone magazine.

The attorneys general claim that the nine-page advertisement violates the 1998 settlement that prohibits the use of cartoons in cigarette advertisements.

Well, we opened up our copy of Rolling Stone and found that the ad spread was hardly an ad for cigarettes at all.

Rather, it’s an ad for the Camel-sponsored “Indie Rock Universe,” a guide to indie rock music.

Camel is “committed to supporting and promoting independent record labels,” the ad proudly reads. The nine-page spread features a special foldout full of intricate illustrated images related to the indie rock scene.

These pictures include animals, imaginary characters and images related to planets and stars.

To be on the safe side, the ad also includes three surgeon general’s warnings.

We played “I Spy,” but we could not find a single image of a cigarette in the entire spread. Actually, the word “Camel” only appears three times. Indeed, one could very easily look at the illustrations and not know that cigarettes had anything to do with it.

So, what are these attorneys general smoking?

Pennsylvania’s attorney general Tom Corbett told the Associated Press that Camel’s “spread in Rolling Stone, filled with cartoons, flies in the face of their pledge to halt all tobacco marketing to children.”

But there isn’t much of an argument for a court case here. While these are colorful illustrations, none of the pictures has anything to do with cigarettes or smoking.

There are no pictures showing anyone or anything smoking.

The spread is also entirely straightforward. There are no subliminal messages related to smoking or cigarettes.

It’s just a creative advertisement for indie rock music, indie rock bands and indie rock illustrations.

When we think about cartoon cigarette advertisements, we think of Joe Camel. And this ad is nowhere near as bad as Joe Camel was, puffing away and smirking, enticing little kids to light up.

Thanks to the landmark 1998 agreement, cigarette advertisements have improved a lot since Joe Camel.

The way we see it, this advertisement is in no way violating the agreement.

The cartoons are not being used to directly market cigarettes in the way Joe Camel was used almost a decade ago. Rather, the illustrations are being used to publicize indie rock music.

There is no reason why this ad should not be allowed to run. We do not condone cartoons like Joe Camel being used to advertise cigarettes. But, at the same time, it is not fair to prohibit tobacco companies from using creative illustrations in their ads, especially when those illustrations have nothing to do with cigarettes.