STATE ADS AIM TO SNUFF OUT CIGAR HABIT

California is launching the nation's first multimedia advertising campaign
against cigars to combat what health officials say is an alarming increase
in their popularity.

At a time when celebrities regularly appear on the covers of cigar
magazines, and upscale cigar shops are springing up around California, the
state today will begin running ads aimed at discouraging the habit.

Officials acknowledge they face an uphill battle.

"Cigars have become the rage in the very same way cigarettes did decades
ago," said state Health and Welfare Secretary Sandra Smoley in unveiling
the campaign Monday.

There has been a 70 percent increase in cigar smoking since 1993, said Dr.
David Burns, a University of California, San Diego, professor of medicine.

"I would never have guessed that in 1998 cigars would be considered
glamorous, sophisticated and symbols of success," said Smoley, whose boss
- -- Gov. Pete Wilson -- is a cigar smoker himself.

The television spot, scheduled to begin airing statewide today, points out
that smoking cigars poses the same health risks as smoking cigarettes. And
a cigar, it tells viewers, may contain 70 times the amount of nicotine in a
cigarette.

The new anti-cigar ad, in contrast to the state's anti-cigarette campaign,
takes a somewhat humorous tack: At the end, it shows a fashionable cigar
smoker with 70 cigarettes crammed in his mouth.

By contrast, the state's latest anti-cigarette television advertisement
features a woman smoking through a breathing hole in her diseased throat.

Kimberly Belshe, director of the state Department of Health Services, which
oversees the state's anti-smoking campaign, said the new advertisement uses
humor because it is aimed at California's youth.

In findings that surprised and alarmed state officials, a survey by the
Department of Health Services showed that about 34 percent of boys ages 16
to 17 have tried cigar smoking at least once, and about 11 percent are
regular cigar smokers.

Among adult males, about 35 percent have tried cigars, according to the
survey, which was taken in 1996. About 9 percent are regular cigar smokers,
nearly twice as many as were found in a 1990 survey, Belshe said.Many more
men than women smoke cigars, according to the report. Only about 1 percent
of females 18 or older reported being regular cigar smokers.

The new advertising campaign -- part of the state's $22 million-a-year,
anti-smoking effort -includes newspaper ads, the television spot and a
radio advertisement. The radio ad is the most graphic. While a smoker
discusses the "hints of dark cherry and spice" in his cigar, another voice
warns of throat cancer and secondhand smoke.

Belshe said the campaign is the first of its kind in the nation, addressing
a problem "that demands a response from those of us in the public health
community."

"The cigar is no longer tobacco's forgotten stepchild," she said. "It's not
grandpa who is smoking cigars these days. It's our kids and our
up-and-coming young adults."

Said Paul Knepprath of the American Lung Association: "The important thing
is that these ads dispel the myth that cigars are harmless."

In Sacramento, the number of cigar shops advertising in the Yellow Pages
this year is 30 percent higher than a year ago. One of those new shops,
Gerry's Fine Cigars, is just a block from the Capitol.

"This ad campaign doesn't surprise me at all," said George Crawford, a
clerk at Gerry's. "It started with cigarettes. Now they've gone on to
cigars. Eventually it will go to pipes."

You just have to use an ounce of common sense. Most customers I've got
probably smoke only at weekends, playing golf or something, somewhere where
they can get fresh air where they're not breathing pollution from a million
automobiles."

Cory Salzillo, a cigar smoker and employee of the Briar Patch cigar shop in
Arden Fair mall, expressed doubt that the ad campaign would hurt business.

"I don't think it will affect our sales because it's not really targeted at
health concerns," he said. "It's more targeted at keeping kids from
smoking, trying a cigar. We don't sell to kids. Our customers -- they smoke
because it's a fad or they're people who have smoked cigars for years."

Bee staff writer Nigel Hatton contributed to this report.

Copyright ) 1998 The Sacramento Bee