CIGARETTE ADS NOW ON THE INTERNET

Cigarette makers have begun to openly advertise on the Internet, without warnings or any other other limitations placed on conventional advertising in many countries where Net users -- including young children -- live and see the ads.

For many this is a very disturbing development, but some of the manufacturers deny that they are even advertising cigarettes, much less advertising cigarettes to children.

Below is one of the home pages:
Others can be accessed by clicking on the following addresses:

Westcyte: http://www.west.de Camel

Silverpage: http://www.techno.de

Lucky Strike Originals: http://www.lucky-strike-originals.de

Following are excerpts from an article entitled BIG TOBACCO HITS THE NET, AND ITS FOES LOOK FOR FIRE in the June 4th edition of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Note that ASH is featured in the article.

Yes, Germany is what you might call deep in the heart of Marlboro Country. Smoking is big here -- and, if the advertising guns of the tobacco industry hit their mark, it's going to get bigger. For Germany can now boast a unique status in international cyberspace: the first electronic Boardwalk of Big Tobacco.

In recent months, Camel, Lucky Strike and a big German cigarette brand, West, have opened electronic pleasure palaces on the German districts of the global Internet computer network.

Most aggressive of all is West, owned by Reemtsma Cigarettenfabriken GmbH. Its World Wide Web pages are a feast of everything chic and stylish. And on nearly every page floats West's red-and-white cigarette pack and its slogan: "Test it!"

The result, in just a few mouse-clicks, has been the first cyber- age tussle between the tobacco industry and its international critics. The aim of these pages, the tobacco companies say, isn't specifically to flog cigarettes on the spot; in fact, you can't actually order any cigarettes through their Web pages.

But the industry's critics say the Web ads have a more insidious aim: To test, in a country where it's least likely to cause a political fuss, a new way to reach teenagers and turn them into smokers.

The Camel pages are "most interesting to young people [aged] 15 to 18," complains Prof. John F. Banzhaf III, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health, a Washington-based anti-smoking group. "What happens is that young kids entering the teen age start out with a negative view of smoking and that has to be broken down. Each time they look at these pages, they see cigarettes associated with things they like. Cigarette companies feel it's worth their time and money to invest in this to sell products. it's a carefully calculated way to associate cool and interesting things with cigarettes."

Markus Oeschger, consumer products manager for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in Cologne, defends his company's German Web pages as legitimate "communication -- not cigarette selling or promotion."

But back at corporate headquarters, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Jan Smith, director of external issues, is more cautious. "In the U.S.," she says, "we chose not to put brands on the Net because of a concern regarding who is accessing it. With magazines, we can ensure that we're reaching a largely adult audience. But with the Net, there's no way of knowing. We don't want under-age people accessing brand information on the Net. So we chose not to because we can't get that kind of insurance."

Opponents argue that sites like West's reach young surfers, whether it is intentional or not. The site has no warning message or log-in procedure to deter teenagers from clicking onto it.

Mr. Pensburg, meanwhile, has big plans. He wants to go beyond German, and switch Westcyte's main language to English, opening it up to the international arena.

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