Since May 14th of 1999, The Shuster Project has accurately illustrated
issues of tobacco industry Fraud & False Claims, suggesting more would
develop from the tobacco companies in time...
Among these are their Consumer Targeting strategies aimed at luring
children to begin smoking.
This recent announcement about Brown & Williamson Tobacco to begin
Catalog Cigarette sales via the USPS which, ultimately, relies on
"through-the-mail" verification of age by photo ID using a drivers License
that many children can have falsely copied of their parents, Uncles, Aunts,
"of age" cousins willing to help them obtain this "verification" and other
false methods of "verifying" their age in order to order cigarettes through
the mail, is yet another devious method the tobacco companies are attempting
to utilize in order to "harvest" children, the elderly and other vulnerable
segments of our society as "new" customers.
Please continue to visit The Shuster Project web site on a regular
basis
to keep informed of the new and continuing scurrilous methods the tobacco
companies will attempt to use in order to lure children to begin smoking.
They are attempting to initiate one of the easiest ways to mass-produce
false Adult ID's in order to obtain via the USPS what children can't easily
achieve, for the most part, in retail stores presently...to be able to
purchase cigarettes and tobacco products and produce "in-person" Adult ID at
the point of purchase in order to get possession of cigarettes from that
store.
Brown and Williamson just made that restriction less "restricting."

-"Robert X. Shuster"

Tobacco Company Begins Direct Sales

Will Sell Cigarettes Through Catalogs

Get Quote, Company Info: <A HREF="aol://4785:BTI">BTI</A>

By BRUCE SCHREINER

.c The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Oct. 13) - Brown & Williamson Tobacco hopes to do for

cigarettes what L.L. Bean has done for khakis.

In what is believed to be a first, B&W is beginning to sell its less-popular

brands through catalogs. The intent is to maintain customer loyalty to its

second-tier brands, many of which get squeezed out by tough competition and

are not regularly stocked by retailers.

Critics of B&W's plans accuse the company of devising a creative way to

undermine regulations aimed at protecting children from the marketing of

tobacco products.

Like it or not, adult smokers in nine states will soon be able to order B&W

brands, such as Misty and Capri, by phone, fax or mail, and eventually over

the Internet. The company said Thursday that it has formed a subsidiary, BWT

Direct LLC, devoted to catalog sales.

Thousands of catalogs will be mailed by the end of next week.

``Most retailers limit the cigarette brands and brand styles they stock,

displaying only those with a significant market share,'' said John

Heironimus, president of BWT Direct and vice president of its parent company.

``The result has been that many loyal, longtime customers of some of B&W's

traditional products have difficulty locating those products.''

But tobacco critics are suspicious of the venture, saying it seems aimed at

wooing new customers. Anti-smoking advocates are particularly concerned about

protecting children from direct sales.

``What they are doing with catalog sales is opening up a potential whole new

way to market their product,'' said Ahron Leichtman, executive director of

Citizens for a Tobacco-Free Society.

``And while the industry says it is putting in place a strategy to prevent

those sales to minors, in the past they have proven to be ineffective in

prohibiting those illegal sales,'' Leichtman added.

Karen Brotzge, BWT Direct's executive vice president, said the company will

only send catalogs to smokers whose ages have been verified and that it will

only sell to people 21 or older. She said the company has hired a database

firm to verify that customers are adults.

In cases where BWT cannot independently verify a potential customer's age,

the company will send out an age-verification packet, she said. The packet

must be returned with a copy of a driver's license or other government-issued

identification card.

B&W brands to be sold in catalogs are Carlton, Misty, Capri, Barclay,

Tareyton, Raleigh, Belair, Tall and Silva Thins. Combined, those brands

account for 3.5 percent of the U.S. cigarette market, said B&W spokesman Mark

Smith.

B&W is setting a minimum two-carton purchase through direct sales. Prices

will not be less than what people pay at retail stores; excise taxes will be

included.

The company's best-selling brands - Kool, Lucky Strike and GPC - will not be

sold in catalogs.

David Adelman, a tobacco industry analyst with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter,

credited Brown & Williamson with developing an unusual way of attempting to

prevent customers from switching to more accessible brands.

``These are brands that are losing distribution,'' Adelman said. ``There are

people who would like to continue smoking them, but they can't find them. I

think it's a reasonable alternative.''

Direct sales will begin in nine states - California, Kentucky, Florida,

Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Texas, Oregon and Massachusetts - but will