CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
Looks
Like Mints but It’s Camel Tobacco and It’s Free
22 Corporate Crime Reporter 24, June 11, 2008
So, there I was, waiting in line at the Sheetz store in Weston, West Virginia.
On the counter in front of me were about 50 of these little tins laid out on the counter.
They smell like mints.
They looked like mint containers.
And there was a sign next to them that said – free samples.
Young and old could take one.
And no one would object.
The cashier behind the counter looked like a teenager himself.
He wasn’t objecting to anyone taking them.
After all, they were free.
But they weren’t candy.
Or mints.
They were tobacco products.
The slip cover over the mint container says: Camel Snus Trial Offer.
In the container are little pouches of tobacco that you stick under you lip.
Camel Snus is a product of R.J. Reynolds.
And Reynolds is a party to the Master Settlement Agreement between the state Attorneys General and the tobacco companies.
That agreement includes a ban on free tobacco samples.
There is an exception to the ban on free samples, including “the conducting of consumer testing or evaluation of tobacco products with persons who certify that they are adults.”
But that clearly wasn’t going on at the Sheetz I was at.
The Camel Snus were on the counter.
And anyone could take one – or more than one.
I took two.
On the back of the slip cover of the container is this:
“Is Snus for you? We want to know. Go to www.mysnusopinion.com or call 1.800.348.7994 Toll Free.”
An attorney at the National Association of Attorneys General said that if Reynolds were giving Camel Snus to retailers as free samples to be handed out, “it would appear to violate the terms of the agreement.”
And Eric Lindblom, director for policy research at Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids in Washington, D.C., said that it was clearly a violation of the agreement and did not fit within the consumer testing exception.
“There is no requirement that anybody provide feedback,” Lindblom said. “No one is there getting the information for follow up.”
“It’s clear that you can’t distribute unless you are doing formal consumer testing – they are trying to push the qualifying language as far as they can even as it clearly rips to shreds the purposes of the original language.”
“The Attorneys General have to always be vigilant,” Lindblom said. “They have to come down hard on the cigarette companies and only then will it stop.”
Right before we went to press, Reynolds' spokesman David Howard calls.
“RJ Reynolds does conduct in-store retail promotions with Camel Snus where an age verified adult tobacco consumer has the opportunity to receive a sample tin of Camel Snus if and only if the consumer purchases a tobacco product in the store,” Howard said. “This type of promotion is permissible under the agreement.”
“But we do not conduct in store retail promotions like what you have alleged where a retail store makes available samples to any consumers who ask,” Howard said.
Howard admitted that if the Camel Snus were available for any customer to take, “that would not be in line with the master settlement agreement.”
“We do not conduct retail promotions like what is being alleged,” Howard said.
“We take a matter like this very seriously,” Howard said. “We are currently looking into this.”
Sheetz corporate headquarters did not return repeated calls seeking comment.
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