Editorial: Smokes with that lipstick?

Monday, May 7, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.

The R.J. Reynolds marketing campaign for Camel No. 9, the company's new cigarette for women, is hardly love potion material.

In fact, it's hard to find anything decent about a scheme that involves luring young women to parties where they are pampered with free massages, free hairstyling, goody bags with makeup and jewelry and, of course, free samples of Camel No. 9 cigarettes.

Make no mistake: These are not Joe Camel's smokes. Ads describe them as "light and luscious." They reportedly smell better than the traditional Camel cigarette, and they come in a sleek, chic black-and-pink pack. A 26-year-old woman who attended a recent Camel No. 9 launch party in Florida told National Public Radio that she likes the pack because "it's more for females, instead of carrying around a nasty, ugly pack."

Still, the contents of that pack remain nasty and ugly. Cigarette smoking causes lung cancer. And, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lung cancer death rates for U.S. women are among the world's highest. It is the No. 1 cancer killer among women, eclipsing even breast and cervical cancers.

R.J. Reynolds officials say that only about 30 percent of current Camel smokers are women, and that the ads are intended to attract women who already are smokers . The company disputes that Camel No. 9 advertising and packaging target teenage girls or young women who don't smoke.

But during a Senate hearing in February, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, held one of the ads aloft and said it "strains the imagination to think this campaign is aimed at anybody other than 15-, 16-, 17-year-old girls - something that's pretty morally repugnant."

Actually, seeking to pass off cigarettes as something luxurious to do for oneself - such as getting a new hairstyle or makeup - is morally repugnant for women of any age.

There is nothing pretty about smoking and the illnesses and deaths it causes.