Pierce Mattie Public Relations New York & Los Angeles

I've seen these Camel No.9 ads in many of my favorite magazines over the last few days and have been completely disgusted as well! I'm not only disgusted with Camel, but horrified that these magazines (one of them was InStyle and I think the other was Glamour) are accepting these ads!

What's even worse is that the size of the ad-- and the thick paperboard they're using-- makes the magazine flip to it automatically! Over and over again. It's bollocks! As an ex-smoker who truly understands the benefits of quitting (those little lines above my lip are starting to plump up again-- not to mention that my lungs don't feel like an elephant is stepping on them), I find it sad that Camel would use "beauty-style" marketing to keep women in the habit. What a nightmare... Thanks for writing about it...

The ads are working quite well in regards to Camel sales. I just discovered 2 packs of Camel No. 9s in my 14 year old daughter's bookbag. Sad.

Dana and Ron, thank you for commenting.

Dana--I agree with you. I think it's pathetic to use beauty as the ultimate way to lure in women smokers. I'm also disappointed that such great magazines are taking advertising dollars for this product.

Ron--This is exactly my fear for what will happen with Camel N.9's. It won't be the mature woman who gets roped in by the fancy advertising, it will be the young, vulnerable, impressionable girl who will want to be cool to smoke such a cigarette.

I'm a college student (and a social-smoker) and I bought Camel No. 9's just because they're cute. I hate that RJ Reynolds is doing this because if the pink packaging hadn't caught my eye, I probably wouldn't have bought a pack at all today. They're pretty, but they're still going to kill you.

I am successfully on the patch for two months, and the first thing I think when I get this plush, beautifully packaged set of coupons in the mail is: Wow! This is pretty! What is it? Cigarette coupons? Shit! But it's pretty. I'll open it anyway.

The next thing is, how much money did this advertisement cost them? This is worse than the extra glossed super thick marlboro ads. They even have an empty box of smokes enclosed. (O-Boy save them for special occasions!!! Yeah right.) The bunch of jackasses, they have just emphasized one of my reasons to quit. Pushers to the extreme.

okay so, Im 14 years old. I honestly love smoking. mhmm my best friend is addicted, I am not. But none the less they calm me down. I know its a horrible habbit and I've gotten into fist fights with my father about it. I believe camel no 9s are great and pretty, I have two packs upstairs in my room

I know you all are disgusted with smoking. Some kids smoke to be cool, some kids smoke to smoke or to escape other things, I started smoking because I used to cut my self.

When I started smoking I found it a better way of relieving myself then giving my exterior scars but my interior is being scared 10 x worse.

Kids learn from there mistakes let them make mistakes but at the same time give them boundries, let your kid try some beer at dinner. If they smoke pot once tell them not to do it again or else thell get in trouble. Communicate with your kids because I know that if my parents hadn't let me taste beer at dinner or had a glass of wine occasonally that I would be an alchoholic. The more you hold your kids back form expieriences the more then want to retaliate.

Trust me....I'm one of those kids and let your kids do what they want with there hair, I mean its hair itll grow back, and they can learn from the hair mistake if a grown up decides to judge them because of their hair then they know who there real friends are. Trust me.

I may seem like nerotic stupid little 14 year old, but I know a lot for my age because I have good, no not good, amazing, great wonderous parents.

I'm not going to end up a nothing when I'm older. I'm going to make alot of money and lead a great life. Please just think about what I wrote. You don't have to listen to me,
but I do have a a better point of view because I am a kid living in this age. Just because you went thorugh the same things doesnt mean everything is the same and your kids know you went thorugh the basics, but trust me you will never fully understand.

Charlotte--that's the point of the packaging, to catch your eye and interest you enough to buy them.

Kim--Congratulations on being smoke-free for 2 months. I can't believe they sent you an empty box of cigarettes. As an ex-smoker I know all too well what an empty box of cigarettes means--it causes anxiety to buy another pack.

Isabella--Your comment about the cigarettes goes much deeper than smoking. I can hear you loud and clear. I'm sure you realize that you replaced one self-destructive behavior with another. I used to smoke from my teenage years into my early 20's and my perspective comes from seeing too many people die from cancer. Take care of yourself Isabella.

Camel 9 cigarettes come in a black box that is lined with pink. Pink is the color for breast cancer awareness. How dare they use this color which has meant hope for cancer patients to advertise cigarettes to young women?

If you think about it Pink = Cancer awareness and Black = death. Nothing like wrapping up death in a box and tying it with a pretty pink ribbon! The shame is that it is working!

Good point Mindy, I never even thought about it in that way.

Shannon, I don't have my own URL, so I used REAL's. REAL is Hawaii's Youth Movement Against the Tobacco Industry. We use counter marketing to expose the tobacco industries manipulative tactics on our teen generation. Yep, these Chanel, I mean Camel 9's are obscene. We're holding a demonstration March 23 and 24 called, "OMG 1200 Shoes". The shoes represent the 1200 people per day that die due to tobacco use in the U.S. every year. We'll be sure to expose the Camel 9 lies!!! at the demonstration. It's at 2 of our malls during peak movie times when our malls are most crowded with teens.

I think that cigarettes are bad for you and then could kill you. There could be less smokers in the world. There are 4000 chemicals that can kill you!!! I think that Camel has gone too far and is making more and more people want to smoke. Cigarettes can cause a heart attack and lung cancer and stroke.

Why has Camel gone so far??? It is because they are making young women want to smoke and pregnant women want to smoke and the thing about it calming you down is a lie.

I have to agree on everything that everyone has said. Smoking is bad, so I don't know why people do it if you know its going to kill you. I always tell my friends "Don't smoke, you know its killing you. Why do something that you know is going to kill you?" I try to show them the sites online where the doctors are taking out a smoker's lungs and wonder why they want to live like that.

Uhm, first off: Maybe they don't care if it's killing them.
That's kind of the point now, right?

Next, I'm a marketing major; I know the power behind advertising. Yes, they marketed it well, and they knew the public would be duped.

But, people would smoke no matter what. So I feel like it's more efficient to spend time talking about ways to better alleviate the cause, rather than waste words just criticizng the symptoms of much bigger issues-at-hand...

'Cause, well, what good is a mere discussion on packaging tactics going to do anyone? Not much.

If you really do care, then coming up with some creative ways to address the reasons behind why people smoke to begin with might be a little more effective.

Hi K, thanks for posting a comment.

The point of this post was not whether or not they cared, because obviously they sell tobacco for a living and don't care about the ramifications. It was merely about the new way they are marketing their product to strictly target women. Camel doesn't dominate the women's smoking market, Marlboro does and their marketing tactic is to go after their demographic.

Regardless of people who already smoke, the fact is that teens who may not have smoked previously will see this new tactic and fall prey to it. It's not about the ones who already smoke, its about the ones who don't but sit on the fence.

As for whether I really do care or not, I work with the American Cancer Society to raise money for research, awareness and supportive services...but again, this post was not about me, it is about Camel's ploy to target women.