European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 27, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday March 27, 1992 the stars and stripes Page 13 columns Ellen Goodman old Joe Camel must be smoked out of ads mixed messages in a year when watching political ads has become a Media special i am not surprised at the Fate of Joe Camel. He a getting the truth in advertising treatment. At this rate the old Smoothie May not even make it through the primaries. Old Joe was just another cartoon character when he immigrated Here from european ads. He ended up in the hands of consultants and message marketeers who decided he was the candidate to grab the hearts minds Ard lungs of americans. Soon his name recognition became the envy of the entire Field of competitors. Among certain segments of the population today old Joe Camel is As Well known As Mickey mouse. Why 91.3 percent of 6-year-Olds not Only know old Joe but what he stands for. I hats More than can be said for old George Bush. Joe a image is fixed in the Public mind As a smooth character. He is known far and wide for shooting Pool scuba diving and of course smoking. He also has an acknowledged sex Appeal. There is first and Foremost his us nose prominently displayed or dare i say Hung on thousands of billboards. Then there Are the girls who surround him at the Oasis and the to shirts and the promotion of Hump Day. But now despite All the efforts of Campaign consultants and Media experts the Camel cigarettes candidate May finally have met his match. During super week surgeon general Antonia Novello along with the american medical association called on Rwjr Nabisco to dump the dromedary. And they asked magazines and retailers to ban the cartoon cigarette Pusher from their premises. The opposition has finally proved that old Joe a Campaign message is directed at citizens too Young to smoke. A growing body of research shows that this commercial creature has been deliberately directed by his handlers to get children sold on smoking. He a working the underage nicotine beat. An assortment of studies in last december a journal of the american medical association showed that old Joe was extremely effective in delivering his $75 Mil lion a year message. Young children found the cartoon More appealing than adults did and they acted on it. Camels share of the illegal children a cigarette Market jumped from 0.5 percent to 32.8 percent in three years. The cigarette makers who make your average politician look like a Paragon of straight talking virtue insist there a no proof that advertising leads to smoking among children. They advertise merely to increase their share of the adult Market. But you do the math. In any Given year Only some 10 percent of smokers switch brands while 2 million quit a 400,000 of them quit the hard Way by dying from tobacco related illness. About 90 percent of the people who smoke started before they were 20 years old. The Only source of new customers is kids. The Camel Campaign is so blatant so pernicious a pitch to Hook the Young that even advertising age editorialized against the ads. But it has to be that blatant and that pernicious before a Public made passive by smoking reacts. The last time enough ire was raised to throw the cigarette rascals out was in 1990 when Rwjr test marketed a cigarette targeted directly at african american lungs. A a Uptown went Down. In fairness Marlboro Man is not far behind the front runner old Joe in his pitch for the kiddie vote. The assorted ads associating slim Ness and smoking May do As much damage to teen age girls As the smooth character. Cigarettes simply remain the renegade of the american system. Lethal but Legal lawful but unregulated. If cigarettes were invented today they a never get on the Market. But because they Are on the Market we can to get them off without creating a huge underground of lawbreaking addicts. Tobacco is exempt from every Federal health and safety act. The surgeon general can Only ask Rwjr to give Joe the heave and use moral suasion against the Magazine and directors. The Only Way to reduce the enormous health risks of smoking is to encourage quitting and discourage starting. But every year some 1.8 million americans Start smoking. Which brings us Back to the tobacco Industry a $3.6 billion a year and budget a enough Money to Send any cartoon figure to the White House. My own View is that cigarette advertising is intrinsically false except for the Little rectangles carrying the surgeon general a warnings. But the worst of the Pitchman arc those who stick their noses under the children stent. So we begin with candidate Camel. If the Issue of the year is character old Joe is the first to go. C Tho Boston Globe . Rosentha drug War should be on political front lines i Hope it will not annoy the presidential candidates and other seekers of political office if i bring up a subject that they hardly mention As they dash around campaigning. Drugs. You remember a drugs As in drug addiction drug crime drug disease drug homeless drug madness drug guns drug blood and drug babies. And As in the War against drugs declared by Washington Way Back about three years ago. Maybe it is not Worth talking about anymore. Maybe the Bush administration was right declare Victory put it on the Back Burner and put out the Pilot Light. Then announce a new War against a different National killer like the capital gains tax or something. And maybe All those state Legislatures and governors were right to answer recession pressure by whacking away at treatment of drug addicts. After All it is a proven fact that drug addicts Are too zonked out to vote. And it is another proven fact that Middle and upper class americans do not worry about drugs unless they hit their own families or neighbourhoods. So politicians assume doubtless correctly that americans Are too stupid to understand that one Day some addict from a mean Street somewhere might wander into their neighbourhood and teach them a civics lesson by sticking a knife in their ribs. Not everybody has forgotten. In new York City about 750 people got together at a Benefit dinner organized by Tina Brown editor of vanity fair and by the morgans hotel group. The purposes were to help the work against drugs with time and Money and Honor or. Mitchell s. Rosenthal. In the past 25 years he has not forgotten for an hour. Rosenthal is head of Phoenix House largest of the 250 american therapeutic communities. They Are based on a nomadic treatment for addiction. The prescription is for about one year of hard work a All Day every Day in a disciplined environment a that has two objectives. The first is to equip addicts mentally physically and spiritually to keep off drugs forever. The second is to give them the education work habits and self respect needed to earn a living in the world outside. No magic no guarantee. But 70 percent of the addicts who stick it out for a year stay clean and useful to themselves and society. Each addict costs about $45 a Day in philanthropic or tax Money. That amounts to pennies compared with the tens of billions spent building prisons and stocking them with addicts on a perpetual round trip Between Street and cell. Education against drugs by schools and Volunteer groups such As the partnership for a drug free America is making drugs less Chic in schools. But about 6.5 million drug users so abuse themselves that they cannot function in or for the american Community. They fill jails clog hospitals with Needle aids and tuberculosis crowd shelters and provide morgues with a steady dependable Supply of corpses. Therapeutic communities will not end the drug problem but they will help a lot. Rosenthal says about 100, x 0 Beds Are needed. About one tenth of that number exists now More than half in new York and California. And meanwhile the housing land and shops for vocational training Are available in closed military bases. The therapeutic communities plead helplessly for this wasted resource. Since so Many politicians Are reluctant to bring up drugs now How about legalizing the whole thing so we can Stop bothering our Heads Rosenthal like most drug experts says it would be suicide for America. But then nothing is perfect. Of certainly there would be More drug use and abuse. But to keep drugs out of sight of most americans electrified Walls could be built around the poor White or Black and hispanic neighbourhoods infected by drug audits. Then armed guards could be posted at Gates. Addicts could be shot if they tried to get out. Other residents would have to show passes from the special legalization police. Behind the Walls addicts could kill each other  them would be cheaper than treatment. Maybe bounties could be paid for death certificates of crack babies. They would just drag through life anyway. Yes come to think of it now it could work. Trees could even be planted near the Walls. C thu Noa York i to