Jackson Free Press

The company that makes KOOL cigarettes is deviously trying to entice young people of the hip-hop generation into the trap of consuming tobacco, a group that fosters healthy habits in the black community charges. KOOL, owned by Brown & Williamson (of "The Insider" film notoriety), is sponsoring a hip-hop DJ competition called KOOL Mixx 2004 in cities throughout the U.S. The idea is that local undiscovered DJs can display their talents in hopes of realizing their dreams of being in the music industry. The company claims to "understand the vibrant world of the trend setting, multicultural smoker," it says in press materials.

But the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network says this is just another way to get young people hooked on tobacco. "This is a slick scheme by KOOL to exploit black culture and music to market deadly tobacco products," Sherri Watson Hyde, executive director of the Lake Mary, Fla.-based group, said in a statement.

Onjewel Smith of the Jackson chapter of NAATPN says she sees no problem with the competition itself as a venue for aspiring young hip-hop DJs to showcase their talents, but she objects to using such an attractive ploy as a tactic to lure young people into smoking. In conjunction with other organizations, NAATPN is working to help educate and inform people on what the problems are surrounding this campaign.

"We are working to organize the various communities to communicate their concerns with the tobacco companies," Smith said. The organization hopes to get Brown & Williamson to pull marketing events such as the KOOL Mixx 2004. "We don't want to see this again next year in a different form."

In addition to the DJ competition, KOOL has introduced a new line of flavored cigarettes that may attract young people to buy them. The new flavors are called "Midnight Berry" and "Caribbean Chill." NAATPN is working to get these products off the shelves as well. Smith said this campaign against the tobacco company should be as successful as past efforts have been.

"This is not the first time that the community has taken on a tobacco company and won. After the Spike Lee film 'Malcolm X' was aired, there were cigarettes made that looked just like the ones used in the movie. The community got those products off the shelves," she said.

A study by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids found that, despite the multi-state settlement in 1998 that has tobacco companies agreeing to stop targeting youth, "n 2000, they (tobacco companies) spent over $9.6 billion on marketing, another increase of more than 14 percent. Much of this increase was in categories effective at reaching kids, including high-visibility store shelf displays, two-for-one promotions that make cigarettes more affordable to kids, giveaways such as hats and lighters and in-store advertising."

In Jackson the use of tobacco in public places, excluding restaurants and bars is now prohibited due to the efforts of the Capital City Clean Indoor Air Coalition. However, the different tobacco companies are still using people in the community to promote cigarettes sells.

Beth Dickson of the Mississippi Smokeless States Alliance says the reason restaurants and bars have not been included is that the tobacco industry has convinced restaurant owners that if they ban smoking in their establishment, they will lose money. Dickson says this is not true and that the tobacco industry's goal is only to continue to have smoking visible in restaurants and bars to create the illusion that cigarettes are not as dangerous as advertised.