MORE TOBACCO PAPERS SHOW PURSUIT OF TEENS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Another batch of tobacco documents has shed further
light on how two companies designed marketing tactics geared toward
teen-agers and minority groups.

Michigan Rep. John Conyers, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary
Committee, released the papers Thursday dating back to 1973, mostly from
RJR Tobacco Co. and Brown and Williamson.

"These documents make clear that the tobacco industry was targeting blacks,
including black teen-agers, at the same time the industry knew that tobacco
was addictive and caused lung cancer and other smoking-related disease,"
Conyers said.

One 1982 analysis broke the black smokers market into three segments it
called "Coolness," "Virile" and "Stylish."

Another document, from 1973, said smokers in the 16- to 25-year-old age
group would soon be three times as important to the Kool brand as a
prospect in any other broad age category.

Several batches of documents released recently have highlighted past
marketing strategies, and made more and more lawmakers resistant to the
idea of granting the industry special protections from certain future
lawsuits.