DATE: Friday, July 11, 1997                 TAG: 9707110576

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL NOWELL, ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: CHARLOTTE                         LENGTH:   65 lines

R.J. REYNOLDS DROPS JOE CAMEL

Joe Camel's been sent packing.

After being accused for years of using the hip cartoon character to appeal to kids, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. is dropping the campaign in favor of the more lifelike illustration of a camel that has been on cigarette packs for generations.

``Obviously, there's been a controversy surrounding Joe Camel for some time,'' RJR spokesman Nat Walker said. ``That's the reason why we began looking for alternatives.''

RJR has used the suave Joe Camel - often pictured in sunglasses and surrounded by beautiful women - since 1988.

Joe Camel's days were probably numbered anyway because of the recent settlement between the tobacco industry and the attorneys general of 40 states. The settlement, which is subject to approval by Congress, would ban cigarette companies from using cartoons or human figures in advertisements.

In addition, the Federal Trade Commission had moved to ban Joe Camel on May 28, charging that he was designed to sell cigarettes to young people.

``Joe Camel is dead. He had it coming,'' said White House aide Bruce Reed. ``We're grateful to the attorneys general for helping to bring this about. It's no accident.''

President Clinton, traveling in Poland, welcomed RJR's decision but said: ``This step is long overdue. As I said last year when we announced the FDA rule to protect youth from tobacco, we must put tobacco ads like Joe Camel out of our children's reach forever.''

In Washington, the FTC applauded the move but also said the nation's No. 2 tobacco company should sign an enforceable order preventing it from ever bringing Joe Camel back.

Only a month ago, RJR had sued the FTC, accusing it of harassment and political opportunism in trying to ban Joe Camel.

According to the FTC, Camel cigarettes were used by fewer than 3 percent of smokers under 18 before Joe Camel's birth 10 years ago. Six years later, the brand controlled more than 13 percent of those smokers.

RJR's Walker said Joe Camel had been a marketing success.

``We had it for 10 years and it did what we intended it to do,'' he said from headquarters in Winston-Salem, N.C. ``It was brought on to reposition a brand that had been continuing to lose market share for some time.''

The change applies only to the United States and not overseas, said Jan Smith, another spokeswoman for RJR Tobacco. But she understood Joe Camel is not used extensively outside the country.

David A. Logan, a product liability expert at Wake Forest University's law school, said it will take some time to determine precisely why RJR decided now to kill the hugely successful Joe Camel advertising campaign.

``There's always the suspicion the tobacco companies can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat,'' he said. ``They fought the package warnings in the 1970s and it saved their rear ends in the 1990s. Who knows how they are going to play this out?''

One tobacco industry analyst said RJR had been gradually using the more traditional image of the humped animal in its Camel ads over the past year.

``A keen observer of Joe Camel would have seen the increased emphasis of the Camel silhouette over the last 12 months,'' said Martin Feldman, who follows RJR for Smith Barney.

The new campaign will begin on billboards this week and in magazines in August. RJR said it has been testing it for the past several months. ILLUSTRATION: The cartoon character Joe Camel will be replaced by a

lifelike illustration of a camel in new ads.

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