That the tobacco industry is dead set on increasing its appeal to young people should by now be no news to anyone. What seems to surprise Newsweek columnist Anna Quindlen (Oct. 1, "Killing the Consumer") is that many magazines are enablers for Big Tobacco.
Ms. Quindlen reports the efforts of R.J. Reynolds to promote its new "Camel No. 9" cigarette -- the brand with a pink-foil package liner and a slogan of "light and luscious" -- supposedly to women (read: girls). Some members of Congress asked eleven women's magazines to take the initiative and decline to accept cigarette ads, since the underlying purpose of such a brand is obviously to recruit younger women and girls into becoming cigarette addicts. Apparently, the members of Congress were simply shocked (!) when the magazines didn't acquiesce.
Well, we here at ACSH are not.
For many years we have been tracking the presentation of cigarette ads by women's magazines. We've noted repeatedly that even when editorial content points out the dangers of smoking, many articles about health risks either downplay or ignore the health impact of cigarettes. Further, although the number of cigarette ads in women's magazines has diminished over the years, they have certainly not disappeared.
So while we're sorry Congress had such an unpleasant wake-up call, we hope that our solons will finally face the reality of the insidious nature of the tobacco industry. And wouldn't it be a nice surprise to find women's magazines -- especially ones that purportedly provide health information -- stepping up to the plate and quitting the cigarette habit?
Ruth Kava, Ph.D., R.D., is Director of Nutrition at the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH.org, HealthFactsAndFears.com) -- which created the website TheScoopOnSmoking.org.
