Posted on: Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Lingle blasts ads for cigarettes

By Robbie Dingeman and Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Staff Writers

Gov. Linda Lingle yesterday called a national ad campaign for a special pineapple- and coconut-flavored type of Camel cigarette called "Kauai Kolada" a "disgusting" attempt to market cigarettes to young people.

"The entire marketing campaign is offensive to the people of our state," Lingle said. "The tobacco companies are preying on our youth by enticing them with flavored cigarettes, and getting them addicted at a very young age," she said.

Lingle said she is a former smoker who quit 20 years ago.

The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. is running a national ad campaign in magazines that include People and Sports Illustrated and some Mainland newspapers featuring a hula girl pitching the cigarettes with a tropical drink in one hand and a lit cigarette in the other offering "pleasure to burn."

The company has not responded to a request for comment.

Kaua'i residents yesterday expressed outrage over the cultural insensitivity of the ads as well as the targeting of kids.

Kaua'i resident Val Medina finds the ads offensive to island culture, especially to those who care about hula. "My daughter is a sweet 16-year-old professional hula dancer," Medina said.

"She works hard at being a representative of the aloha spirit to our island visitors and guests, and this Kolada advertisement is offensive and disrespectful to her and other hula girls trying to achieve the same goal," Medina said.

"It is degrading that the beauty of our culture is being used for a smoking advertisement," she said.

State Health Director Chiyome Fukino said she does not believe the state can legally stop the tobacco company from using the Kaua'i name. "The truth of the matter is it's not copyrighted," she said.

Fukino said the use of flavored cigarettes worries her because it seems to be geared toward a vulnerable youthful audience. "It is important to let our youth know that they are being targeted by tobacco companies," she said.

Fukino said Hawai'i may join other states in seeking legal action against the company for targeting youths with its ads because it may be in violation of a master settlement agreement reached between a number of states and major tobacco companies.

Hawai'i is among more than two dozen states that have signed a letter saying they intend to sue another tobacco company, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., for targeting young people with its Kool cigarette marketing campaign.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429 and Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.