LIFE, WITH CANCER

Lauren Terrazzano
Life, With Cancer

April 17, 2007

Joe Camel, the iconic figure that over the years has become an all too familiar face to male cigarette smokers, is exploring his feminine side.

A new cigarette called Camel No. 9 evokes the image of a fancy perfume. Its taste is described by its marketers as light and luscious and even sweet, similar to clove. It is packaged in a sleek black box with pink foil.

The advertisements for the carcinogenic delicacy can be found in traditional bibles of femininity and fashion like Vogue and Glamour magazines, as R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. pushes the cigarette in an aggressive marketing campaign targeting women.

That's how I found out about the new brand. Flipping through one of the magazines one day in a doctor's office, I came upon the ad. It was set apart from other pages by thicker, textured paper.

My eyes lingered.

While the company markets its new cigarette, lung cancer rates in women continue to rise. I know this, because I am one of those so-called statistics, though I am much more than that. The fact is, lung cancer is the No. 1 cancer killer of women, whose lifetime risk of developing it is one in 17. Eighty-five percent of all lung cancer deaths are among smokers, according to the National Lung Cancer Partnership.

While lung cancer rates for women have gone up, rates of the disease in men have leveled off in the past 25 years. A study last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that women smokers are almost twice as likely to get lung cancer as men.

Though there are few formal studies, anecdotal evidence has suggested a spurt in cases among younger female smokers. I smoked off and on for about five years, not really the profile of the typical smoker who developed the disease as a result of her bad habit.

Still, the new marketing push seems doubly sinister, especially upon learning that the hugely profitable tobacco company hosts "girls night out" events with makeovers and free packs of cigarettes to get women interested in the brand.

A long way from one of those parties, I sat last week in Room 1428 of Memorial Sloan-Kettering's lung cancer ward, where I am being treated at this point for the symptoms of the disease after a nearly three-year fight. I was trying to get in touch with Camel's marketing guru, the man who came up with the strategies to lure women to smoke Camel No. 9.

In an interview last week, the company's marketing expert, Craig Fishel, characterized the campaign to reach women, plainly and simply, as "an opportunity." But he insisted, "We're not targeting young women," because he said the tobacco company won't advertise in a publication that has less than 85 percent adult readership, which is defined by the demographics as age 18 and older. "It encapsulates all adults," he insisted. I insisted that 18 and older means young women, the same ones who were drawn to the Glamour magazine that featured the Camel No. 9 ad and a cover shot of Drew Barrymore this month.

Thirty percent of its Camel brand smokers are female. The new cigarette made its debut in February, right as Congress began to debate sharply limiting tobacco marketing.

To be fair, I do have mixed feelings on this issue. I believe in free will when it comes to smoking. We have all made decisions about it at one point or another.

But I wonder if a teenager or a 20-something woman reading the magazines has the will power to stay away from cigarettes, as she is simultaneously bombarded in neighboring pages with messages about being thin and how to lose fat.

The fact is, Joe Camel should take a hike. A very long one. In the desert.

Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.