Marie Cocco: Death by Fuchsia and Teal

from Truthdig:


Death by Fuchsia and Teal

Posted on Feb 19, 2007
By Marie Cocco

WASHINGTON—It turned up in the news just as the blooms on Valentine’s Day flowers were drooping down—an ornate image with hints of Victorian romance in the swirls of buds and stems that embraced the objects of desire: Camel cigarette packs.

“Light & luscious,” the magazine advertisement for R.J. Reynolds’ new version of Camels declares. These are odd and outright deceptive words to describe a noxious blend of carcinogens that not only cause disease and death—but obviously stink when lit. Still, Reynolds is pushing its new woman-friendly Camel product as if it were as enticing as a whiff of Chanel perfume: Camel No. 9, it’s called. Its package is black, and trimmed in “fuchsia” and “teal,” the company’s chosen words for its version of pink and blue.

This is your killer habit on Kate Spade.

Big Tobacco has never been subtle about marketing cigarettes to women. It has exploited women’s concerns about their weight ("Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet” it urged in the 1920s) and sought to capitalize on their newfound sense of emancipation ("You’ve come a long way, baby,” it declared in the late 1960s). Secret industry documents unearthed in the 1998 settlement of state lawsuits against major tobacco companies revealed that women smokers don’t necessarily want to quit, “yet they are guilt-ridden with concerns for their families if smoking should badly damage their own health,” according to a Philip Morris Co. memo cited by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health. Hence, “light” and “low-tar” cigarettes are aggressively marketed to women, though they are just as likely to make you sick as regular blends. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070219_death_by_fuchsia_and_teal/

Didn't these colors peak in the 80s?