Tobacco industry

The specifics on Christensen's proposal are not yet clear, but it is clear that the tobacco industry plans to fight it. Tobacco Company lobbyists are already fighting against the regulation, said Christensen. She said the only company in favor of the menthol ban is Phillip Morris. But Lorillard, the cigarettes company that produces Newport cigarettes, is mounting what the Times called a "counteroffensive," sending out an email message to customers recently urging them to call their Congressional representatives.
"Urgent! Urgent!...Congress wants to make it illegal to smoke Newport and other menthol cigarettes. Call your member of Congress now and tell them to oppose any amendment to ban menthol cigarettes," the email said. Newport is the number one selling menthol cigarette in the U.S.
Located in Greensboro, North Carolina, Lorillard is the nation's oldest and third largest tobacco company. It was started in 1760 by Pierre Lorillard and now manufactures a wide range of brands, including Kent, True, Old Gold, Maverick, Satin and Max.
Television ads from decades ago depict menthol cigarettes as harmless additives that enhanced the flavor of cigarettes. "Newport is smoother," according to the jingle of one popular television commercial (shown below), "than any other menthol cigarette." All the people depicted in the ads are, of course, white.
But as times changed, Newport's demographics seem to have changed too, and now African Americans are among the biggest consumers of the menthol cigarettes sold by the company that produces Newport. Blacks have also been the target of the industry's advertising efforts, as seen by the two print ads in this article.
Perhaps as a result of the marketing efforts, Newport cigarettes have become popular in the black community. Just walk down 125th Street in Harlem or some other black inner city neighborhoods, and you might hear a familiar refrain: "Newport, Newport!" That's the call of unlicensed cigarette dealers selling the cigarettes by the pack. With the cost of Newport at $8 in New York City, sometimes the cigarettes are even sold individually as "looses" on the black market.
The combination of high cigarette prices and high demand has also fueled the black market. In Kansas City over the weekend, a robber broke into a convenience store and stole thousands of dollars of cigarettes, mostly Marlboros and Newport. In another incident a few weeks ago, a robber broke into a store and stole Newport and Kool cigarettes. And in Florida last month, a gas station was robbed and a thief again stole Newport cigarettes.
The debate over menthol cigarettes, like the debate over malt liquor -- a beer with high alcohol content -- has been going on for years. Both are popular in the African American community, and many health advocates are concerned about the racial health disparities that may be caused by the use of these controversial products.