Camel violated ban on using cartoons to sell cigarettes, judges rule

The four-page Camel cigarette ad in Rolling Stone magazine two years ago was a surrealistic journey to a place called "Camel Farm," where a woman with a retro hairdo sprouted from a green field; where a gramophone, a disembodied hand and a trippy tractor drifted through the air.

It was meant to connect Camels with alternative music, and the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company argued it was far from Joe Camel, the Disneyesque spokescharacter of yesteryear that got it in so much trouble.

But a state Appeals Court ruled Monday that the company nonetheless violated a ban on using cartoons to sell smokes. Now a King County Superior Court judge may have to decide what sanctions the company will face for its ad.

"The Camel Farm imagery depends entirely upon the suspension of the laws of nature," Appeals Court Judge Anne Ellington wrote in the ruling.

"Under a blue sky in a pastoral Eden, roosters hitch rides on floating tractors, speakers grow out of the ground and radios fly. This is in a world where the natural laws do not obtain, where cancer and serious health problems can cease to exist.

"For a product known to cause both, such a world is a potent sales device."

The colorful ad ran in a special anniversary issue of Rolling Stone in November 2007. At the time, Camel was using the Camel Farm promotion, including an elaborate Web site, to refer to raising rock bands up from underground.

But attorneys general in several states, including Washington, promptly filed suit over the ad. They contended it violated a multibillion-dollar nationwide settlement in 1998 in which tobacco companies agreed not to use cartoon characters like Joe Camel — a lovable-looking dromedary in cool clothes.

In Washington state, Attorney General Rob McKenna asked for a halt to the ads and sanctions of $100 per issue of Rolling Stone sold.

But King County Superior Court Judge William Downing rejected all the state's contentions. He ruled the Camel Farm images were a "thought-provoking metaphor regarding the growth and nurturance of artistic creativity."

"They are as different from the sunglass-wearing, saxophone-playing, comically hip Joe Camel as [surrealist painter] Renee Magritte is from Walt Disney," Downing wrote in his ruling.

But the state Appeals Court said that doesn't matter.

"We agree with the trial court that the Camel Farm photo collage does not resemble traditional Disney cartoons, but that is not germane," Judge Ellington wrote. "Rolling Stone's readership is sure to include many young people, especially for an issue focusing on independent music."

However, the court also ruled against the state's contention that a Rolling Stone feature that ran alongside the ad, and also included cartoons, was not R.J. Reynolds' fault.

Assistant Attorney General Rene Tomisser said he was gratified by the ruling because it affirms the state's contention that "it doesn't have to be a cartoon directed at kids ... Any cartoon fits the bill," he said.

Still, it's unclear what, if any, penalty Downing could impose on R.J. Reynolds now. In its original suit, the state agreed that the ad had not actually caused "compensable harm" to any Washington residents. "We can't produce someone who started smoking because of this ad," Tomisser said.

And Downing ruled that the $100-per-issue sanction would amount to punitive damages, which aren't allowed in Washington.

But Tomisser said the state will seek some monetary damages — it hasn't decided how much — for violating the agreement. At a minimum, R.J. Reynolds would have to pay the state all its attorney costs.

But R.J. Reynolds could appeal to the state Supreme Court.

A company spokesman in North Carolina, David Howard, said it is still evaluating its legal options.

"We still firmly believe our Camel ads did not violate the [settlement]," he said.

Ian Ith: 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com