Health Groups Call on R.J. Reynolds to Remove Camel No. 9 from Store Shelves More than 45 groups dedicated to protecting and improving women's health are calling for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to remove its Camel No. 9 cigarettes from stores across the nation. With its stylish packaging and advertising featuring black, bright pink and teal colors, a female-friendly design motif and a name evocative of a women's icon, Camel No. 9 is directly targeted to teenage girls and young women. Together, the foundation and the other groups hope that removing Camel No. 9 cigarettes from store shelves will prevent hundreds of thousands of young women and teen-age girls from starting to smoke, from becoming addicted to nicotine, and from dying prematurely because of smoking-related disease. While R.J. Reynolds' marketing executives say that their Camel No. 9 ad campaign is solely aimed at adult women who already smoke, the public health and women's groups who have signed on to the letter understand that the facts say otherwise. In a 1984 internal company documents made public, an R.J. Reynolds executive once explained that, "It is relatively easy for a brand to retain 18-year-old smokers once it has attracted them. Conversely, it is very difficult to attract a smoker that has already been won over by a different brand." In June, more than 40 members of Congress sent a letter to leading women's magazines asking them to refuse cigarette ads that target their female readers in the wake of the Camel No. 9 launch. Members see such ads as direct attempts to attract girls and young women to smoking. With no response from the magazines, on August 2, 2007, members of Congress, led by Congresswoman Lois Capps, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky and Congresswoman Hilda Solis, sent a follow-up letter urging them to consider to "voluntarily adopt an institutional policy of rejecting cigarette advertising aimed at young people" and asking for a response by August 15. The foundation applauds Congresswoman Capps and her colleagues for their leadership in protecting women from the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. A copy of the letter to R.J. Reynolds and full list of signatories can be found at www.americanlegacy.org.