Tobacco marketing targeting African Americans

[1][3] Philip Morris USA introduced Marlboro Smooth, and insinuated a reduction in menthol in comparison with Kool.

[5] The attorneys general of New York, Maryland, and Illinois filed suit against the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. over the marketing of Kool cigarettes.

The Kool Mixx campaign featured images of DJ's, young rappers, and dancers on cigarette packs and in advertising.

A settlement was reached with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., which acquired the assets of Brown & Williamson in July.

[6] Under the settlement, R.J. Reynolds agreed to significant restrictions on all future Kool MIXX promotions, including: In the case of Brown versus Philip Morris, Inc., Reverend Jesse Brown attempted to highlight the economic racism of cigarette marketing through a civil rights claim.

The Brown complaint stated the "Defendant ha[s] for many years targeted African-Americans and their communities with specific advertising to lure them into using mentholated tobacco products.

"[2] Brown raised the issues of discrimination, niche marketing, and the "staggering loss of life, premature disability, disease, illness, and economic loss" that were the result of the "Tobacco Companies international and racially discrimination fraudulent course of misconduct."

Brown began by explaining the ingredient menthol contains compounds such as benzopyrene, which is carcinogenic when smoked.

By claiming transgression of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, originally written to protect recently freed slaves from a variety of discriminatory practices, the complainants of the Brown suit sought to show the unconstitutionality of targeting African-Americans with defective products.

The Brown complaint failed to take into consideration that the menthol cigarettes were still posing a threat to non-African-Americans as well and that harm was being caused to more than just the African-American community.