ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 27, 1997 TAG: 9703270055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Federal investigators urge lawsuit against RJR.
Saying they have new proof that Joe Camel ads target children, federal investigators are urging an unfair-advertising case against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
Jodie Bernstein, the Federal Trade Commission's director of consumer trade protection, has recommended a lawsuit after reviewing information the agency says wasn't available three years ago, when it decided not to go after the highly successful Joe Camel cartoon character.
``There is new evidence,'' FTC spokeswoman Victoria Streitfeld said Wednesday, but she would not tell what it is or where it was obtained.
Officials at R.J. Reynolds, the nation's No.2 cigarette maker, questioned the existence of new facts.
``There has been nothing in either the Camel campaign or any new, substantive research that changes where we all stood in June of 1994,'' when the FTC commissioners voted, 3-2, not to sue, said R.J. Reynolds spokeswoman Peggy Carter.
FTC staff reopened the investigation of Joe Camel ads last summer after a bipartisan petition from 67 House members requested the new inquiry.
R.J. Reynolds officials will be able to respond to new FTC findings before commissioners vote again on whether to sue, Streitfeld said. That vote could come within two months.
The Food and Drug Administration has passed documents to the FTC throughout its own review of tobacco regulation during the last two years, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The newspaper said these include a study commissioned by R.J. Reynolds showing that 86 percent of children ages 10 to 17 recognize Joe Camel, and that, among them, 95 percent know the cartoon character sells cigarettes.
R.J. Reynolds officials say they sent this survey to the FTC themselves in February 1994, along with advertising industry data showing kids' recognition of Joe Camel is lower than of other characters such as the Energizer Bunny, the Keebler Elves and the Jolly Green Giant.
``But, if they forgot, we are more than willing to refresh their memory,'' the company said in a statement.
LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB