TOBACCO INDUSTRY GENERATES SALES WITH PUFF OF INNOCENCE

Deceitful ads utilize young girls, hipness, even Virgin Mary

Americans know the symbols:

The rugged cowboy -- the Marlboro man -- staring out from posters and
billboards pushing the macho appeal of smoking cigarettes; and Joe Camel,
readily identifiable as cool and hip, selling Camel cigarettes at events
dominated by teenagers, such as music concerts.

But in the Philippines, the camel and the cowboy are rapidly being replaced
by the Virgin Mary selling American and other foreign brand smokes.

In Poland, hot American cars help push smoking as a symbol of new found
freedom and, in many Asian countries, cigarettes are promoted by smiling
children on posters and billboards.

While American anti-tobacco groups have rallied and railed, successfully in
some cases, against tobacco billboard advertising, television commercials
and counter displays, overseas the hawking of American-brand cigarettes
remains prevalent -- and the ads target children, even using them as part
of the displays.

"Today, the Marlboro Man is America's most visible ambassador to young
people around the world," said Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco. "We can,
and must, set a better example."

To that end, Pelosi and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., are leading a fight
to draw attention to the tobacco industry's marketing of cigarettes to
young people and women around the world.

The two legislators, talking about the effort at a Friday press conference,
also are battling to preserve international tobacco control provisions in
bills pending before Congress.

"How can we possibly say smoking is bad for our kids but OK for children in
other countries?" Pelosi said. "Tobacco legislation must include provisions
to protect young people around the world."

Pelosi, Durbin and their congressional allies want to end U.S. government
support for tobacco abroad, help pay for global tobacco control efforts,
require product labeling overseas and fight tobacco smuggling.

In a tobacco-related move, Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, announced
Friday he would introduce a bill directing the state Department of Health
Services to assess fees on tobacco product manufacturers to reimburse
California taxpayers for the state's health-related costs of caring for
smokers.

Physicians, educators and young people joined Pelosi and Durbin at their
San Francisco press conference.

Mark Palmer, U.S. ambassador to Hungary and vice chairman of the Center for
Communications, Health and Environment, was joined by the young people to
point out what they described as some of the most outrageous advertising of
cigarette marketing in foreign counties.

An L&M cigarette ad with bright red Mustangs encourages Polish consumers to
"Discover a taste of freedom."

A Camel ad in Poland pictures an awning complete with the company's
trademark animal hanging over a British and American English School.

An ad in the Philippines pictures the Virgin Mary -- underneath her
photograph are a dozen packs of different brands of cigarettes, include
More, Winston and Camel.

An ad used in Hong Kong pictures three young couples, dressed in hip,
youthful clothing, promoting a "Marlboro Red Hot Hits" CD.

In Cambodia, a Marlboro ad pictures four girls, who look to be as young as
8-10 years old, touting them as Marlboro cigarette girls.

The speakers admit they face a difficult fight because of the amount of
money the tobacco companies have spent and invested in foreign countries.

American tobacco companies now sell two-thirds of their products outside
the United States, with the majority of those sales coming in developing
countries and markets, the officials said. Philip Morris is the largest
single advertiser in China, Palmer said.

"In China and India, tobacco is the largest resource of government
revenue," he said. "And it's second in Russia."

)1998 San Francisco Examiner