Outraged at cigarette manufacturers plan to expolit black youth and urban hip-hop culture

The National African American Tobacco Prevention Network has denounced a plan by KOOL brand cigarettes to escalate its targeting of black youth and urban hip-hop culture by sponsoring a nationwide Hip-Hop DJ Competition, and creating a special cigarette package to market that event which by design appeals to youth.

The NAATPN is outraged at KOOL’s new development of thematic cigarette packs colorfully depicting various images of hip-hop culture as well as the development of a line of new cigarette flavors, such as ‘Caribbean Chill” and ‘Midnight Berry’.

“This is a slick scheme by KOOL to exploit black culture and music to market deadly tobacco products which are known to kill,” said Sherri Watson-Hyde, NAATPN Executive Director. “We will resist this sinister marketing effort by KOOL to target black youth and the hip hop culture. We will pursue every means necessary to educate and mobilize the black community and all people of conscience to stop this effort.”

According to the March 17 statement released by Brown & Williamson Tobacco, the manufacturer of KOOL’s and other brands, “KOOL understands the vibrant world of the trendsetting, multicultural smoker.” The release goes on to say, “… elements supporting KOOL Mixx 2004 (the name of the DJ competition) maximize consumer impact by combining a variety of retail and interactive communications.” In addition to these marketing ploys, KOOL will have major name hip hop artists perform at these events and a well known urban lifestyle magazine promoting this event and products through full page ads and inserts.

The new colorful KOOL cigarette packs feature images of hip-hop DJ’s, performers and dancers designed to attract the attention of young black and other hip hop and rap fans. Kool has also announced that it will market and distribute other “point of sale” hip-hop products and material. Previous studies have shown that 75 percent of adolescents shop at convenience stores at least once a week, and they are more likely than adults to be influenced by convenience store promotions.

NAATPN and other groups denounce Brown and Williamson Tobacco calling their efforts a “bold and shameless” violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the Major Settlement Agreement (MSA) prohibiting the marketing of tobacco products to youth by the tobacco companies. The Praxis Project, another tobacco policy group, believes that weak regulations are a large part of the problem. “The tobacco industry is trying to beef up sales by targeting kids. We know who listens to hip hop. They know who listens to hip hop. This kind of blatant targeting of children should be illegal but Congress has failed to act to protect our kids” says Makani Themba Nixon, the Executive Director of Praxis.