A New Way to Enjoy Nicotine Addiction [1]
Submitted by Anne Landman [2] on
Amid an increasingly hostile climate towards secondhand smoke [3] and tobacco advertising [4], tobacco companies [5] are battling to maintain both their nicotine markets and the ability to use their logos. R.J. Reynolds [6] stopped advertising [7] cigarettes in magazines in 2008, but is once again printing its Camel logo in major magazines like Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated and Maxim, in ads for a new form of non-combusted tobacco called "snus" (rhymes with "moose"). Snus is a form of chewing tobacco promoted as "spitless" because it's low salt content keeps users from having to expectorate tobacco juice publicly. Snus has been popular in Sweden. Some experts consider it safer than cigarettes because it is not burned, but this is the first time a major cigarette manufacturer has tried to market snus in the U.S. Camel snus ads promote the product as a way to get around smoking bans in airports, sporting venues and at concerts. Public health advocates point out that RJR is marketing [8] snus as a complement to cigarettes, not as a replacement product, and that use of both products can lead to a dual nicotine addiction [9] which is even harder to quit than addiction to one form of nicotine. RJR is also test-marketing other forms of non-combusted nicotine: dissolvable pellets similar to Tic Tacs called "Camel Orbs" [10] that contain finely-ground tobacco, and nicotine-containing oral-use strips that resemble Listerine breath-freshening strips and that melt on the tongue. Danny McGoldrick of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids [11] says the inconspicuousness of such products makes them undetectable in a classroom setting, which "could entice kids into the habit of tobacco use."