You've come a long way baby?

Would you feel the urge to smoke a cigarette if it came in a pretty pink package? Probably not. But R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, the maker of Camel cigarettes, thinks you might. Feminists and policymakers are taking issue, however, with Reynolds’ use of pink and light green packaging for the new Camel No. 9 cigarette brand, and succeeded this week in getting ads for the product out of a number of women’s magazines.

Get this: the National Partnership for Women and Families reports that Reynolds, “in an effort to increase its market share among female smokers, who make up about 30% of Camel buyers, packaged the cigarettes in a ‘hot-pink fuchsia’ and a ‘minty-green teal package’ and advertised the brand with the slogan, ‘Light and Luscious.’ An ad campaign for the brand said the cigarettes were ‘available in stiletto,’ a longer, thinner cigarette.” The manufacturers put ads for No. 9s in Cosmo, Glamour and Vogue, and gave away coupons and free packs at various nightclubs.

Of course spokespeople for Reynolds denied pulling the ads as a result of consumer responses, but a number of activist organizations cite political pressure as the chief reason for ousting the pink-packaged cigarettes. Whether or not tobacco companies alter the content of the advertisements rather than just pull them from select magazines is up to us! To contact representatives for Camel Cigarettes specifically, call 1-800-334-8157. How dumb do they think women are?