Lingle condemns
marketing of
‘Kauai Kolada’
cigarettes
The tobacco giant forced to retire Joe Camel from its ad campaigns is coming under fire in Hawaii for using an island's name and the image of a hula girl to promote a new line of cigarettes.
Outrage over Camel's "Kauai Kolada" cigarettes -- which feature "Hawaiian hints of pineapple and coconut" and are only being sold this summer -- goes as high as the state's top executive.
"Using the name of Kauai and Hawaii images to market cigarettes to young people is disgusting," Gov. Linda Lingle said in an e-mail to the Associated Press yesterday. "This entire marketing campaign is offensive to the people of our state."
Kauai Mayor Bryan Baptiste had equally harsh words regarding the ad for Camel, a brand of Winston-Salem, N.C.-based R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
"I am appalled that this company has chosen to use the Kauai name to market a product that kills," he said. "The word 'Kauai' is not just the name of our home. It is representative of our culture and our community.
"The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. has used part of our identity to sell this harmful product, an action to which I am vehemently opposed."
Sue Kanoho, executive director of the Kauai Visitors Bureau, said she sent a letter to R.J. Reynolds asking them not to place any further ads. "They haven't responded and, frankly, I don't expect a response," she said.
Kauai Kolada is being marketed along with "Twista Lime" -- another summertime flavor -- in publications nationwide. The ad features an island beauty in a grass skirt leisurely lying on two packs of cigarettes -- a coconut drink in one hand and a lit cigarette in the other.
The governor, a former smoker who quit 20 years ago, said the tobacco companies are "preying on our youth by enticing them with flavored cigarettes, and getting them addicted at a very young age."
R.J. Reynolds denied the claims.
"We feel it is an adult product and it is also a legal product," said Ellen Wallace, spokeswoman for the tobacco company. "I certainly regret ... those feelings toward cigarette products, but again, there are an awful lot of people across the country who have found tremendous enjoyment out of our exotic blends."
Deborah Zysman, director of Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii, which represents more than 50 anti-tobacco groups, said she is concerned that colorful ads and "candy-flavored" cigarettes attract new, younger smokers.
"All the agencies are saddened and discouraged by RJR and many other tobacco companies' efforts to continue to, what we feel, is addict our young people," she said. "This newest tactic definitely hits home especially because they are using Hawaii in the ads."
R.J. Reynolds has faced similar accusations before.
In the 1990s, the Federal Trade Commission accused the company of targeting children in its ad campaigns using the popular Joe Camel cartoon character. The lawsuit was dismissed after the landmark 1998 settlement between states and tobacco companies, which included provisions banning cartoon characters from cigarette ads.
Kauai Kolada and Twista Lime were introduced in early June and will only be manufactured for eight weeks as part of RJR's limited-edition summer blends line that began last year.
Star-Bulletin reporter Anthony Sommer contributed to this report.