New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s draconian smoking ban (Not here! Not now! Not never!) became operative this week, and one secondhand smoking effect was this ad campaign for Camel SNUS pouches (via CSP magazine):
Text of the lefthand ad:
NYC SMOKERS ENJOY FREEDOM WITHOUT THE FLAME
Smokers, switch to smoke-free Camel SNUS and reclaim the world’s greatest city. No matter where you go or what you do, Camel SNUS is the perfect tobacco pleasure to enjoy virtually anywhere. Camel SNUS – the pleasure’s all yours.
The ad also included this:
Share your support for tobacco freedom at CamelSNUS.com/solution*
*WEBSITE RESTRICTED TO AGE 21+ TOBACCO CONSUMERS
So the Campaign Outsider Investigative Unit dutifully tried to sign up. Twice. Both times we received this response:
Unfortunately, we were unable to complete your registration online – sometimes these things require the human touch.
Here are three different ways to finish.
- Call us at 1-877-CML-1913 and we´ll help you through the process.
- Scan a copy of your Driver´s License / State ID and send it to us with Email to RJRSIGNUP@RJRT.COM
- Send us your registration form by U.S. Mail. CLICK HERE to download a pre-filled form, print it, and drop it in the mail.
Yeah, we’re sending them our driver’s license the way Arnold Schwarzenegger is giving Mother Jones an exclusive interview.
Our first guess as to why we were rejected: We didn’t choose any (Camel parent company) R.J. Reynolds products in response to “What is your regular cigarette brand?”
But then we noticed this on the registration site:
Welcome to CamelSnus.com, a members-only community of tobacco consumers who are 21 years of age or older. Because tobacco is an age-related product, we require third party age verification. So please take extra care filling out the various fields here. There’s a whole world of great content inside and we want to make sure you can get to it.
Please enter your first and last name and your address as they appear on your driver’s license or other forms of official identification.
Huh. Third-party age verification. They should live so long.
Regardless, next time we go to the Big Town, we’ll remember that SNUS could help us reclaim the world’s greatest city.
Tempting, no?
Campaign Outsider 