Rolling Stone ad sparks lawsuit

Illinois is one of six states accusing R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. of violating a nine-year-old ban on the use of cartoons to support cigarette advertisements.

The lawsuits target a section in the November edition of Rolling Stone magazine that combines pages of Camel cigarette ads and pages of magazine-produced illustrations around the theme of independent rock music.

"RJR continues to use its advertisements to lure young people into a deathly habit that remains the number one preventable cause of death in the United States," Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said in a statement. "I will continue to work to protect children and teens from any effort to convince them to start smoking."

California, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington also are filing lawsuits.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown called the Rolling Stone piece a "rather clever piece of advertising."

"They agreed not to do these kinds of things ever since Joe Camel," Brown said. "We have to call them to task."

David Howard, a spokesman for R.J. Reynolds in Winston-Salem, N.C., did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He told the New York Times last month there was a clear difference between the Camel ads on the outside pages of the section and the illustrations in the inside fold-out.

The landmark 1998 settlement between 46 states and the tobacco industry reimburses states for smoking-related health-care costs. To prevent the industry from pitching to minors, the agreement includes a provision against using cartoons in advertisements.

The cigarette ads tout the "free range rock" and support for independent record labels while using images of people in 1950s-era dress, farm animals, an old-fashioned tractor and furnishings like a phonograph against a farm backdrop. Those pages fold out to reveal a four-page spread of an illustrated "Indie Rock Universe."

Each of the six states is seeking fines of $100 per magazine distributed within its borders, as well as $100 combined per hit on a related R.J. Reynolds Web site, www.thefarmrocks.com. The site had been taken down as of Tuesday evening.

If every state involved in the 1998 settlement files suit, the fines could exceed $100 million, said a spokesman for Pennsylvania's Attorney General Tom Corbett.

The lawsuits also ask for the removal of the images from all Web sites and promotions and a payment by R.J. Reynolds equal to the cost of the Rolling Stone advertisement to be used for anti-smoking ads.