Camel No. 9: Now available
in Stiletto

Representative Lois Capps (CA-D), the leader of a group of US representatives asking women's magazines to stop publishing cigarette ads, is dissatisfied with the apathy she's receiving from the industry.

"I am extremely disappointed with the decision of these 11 women's magazines to continue running ads promoting cigarette smoking," said the California Democrat in the report by Advertising Age.

Under particular fire by the group is a new set of ads from Camel, which is marketing its new brand, No. 9, heavily to young female cosmopolitans.

"These ads encourage a fatally addictive habit and are especially targeted at young women. It's just flat-out hypocritical to run stories about becoming more beautiful and healthy while promoting a dangerous product responsible for killing hundreds of thousands of people a year."

Thomas Florio of Vogue suggested a better recourse may be to pass restrictions via Congress, rather than trying to guilt-trip femme-mag publishers.

"As members of the media, we at Vogue continue to practice our right of freedom of the press, expressing our views on such topics without pressure from, or regard for, a company who may advertise in Vogue, now or in the future," said Mr. Florio in a letter toted by Capps.

"In our opinion, however, the goal of Congress should be to create legal guidelines for the marketing, distribution and sale of tobacco products, rather than to bring pressure on a magazine to forgo its legal right to conduct business as approved by lawmakers of the United States."

And Editor in Chief Cynthia Leive of Glamour added that while magazine editorial consistently warns women against smoking, the act remains a personal choice, and bearing smoking ads is legal.

"In the coming weeks we will continue to highlight the hypocrisy of these magazines' actions and pursue alternative means to encourage them to do the right thing," Capps vowed.