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Thursday, February 22, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Women targeted
R.J. Reynolds will be getting away with murder if plan to market new cigarette is carried through
R. J. Reynolds' plan to market a cigarette targeting poorly educated young women is not only immoral, it is deadly.
is unlikely.
On Saturday, the Washington Post reported that according to a detailed marketing strategy prepared for the tobacco company, R.J. Reynolds plans to test-market a cigarette called Dakota this April in Houston.
The company is trying to attract the most lucrative market for cigarette sales; white, 18- to 24-year-old women with no education beyond high school. R.J. Reynolds calls them "virile females," the kind of women who enjoy cruising, partying and attending hot rod shows and tractor pulls with their boyfriends.
This targeted group is one of the only groups of people in the United States whose rate of smoking continues to increase. Cigarette companies have been competing intensely for their patronage.
R. J. Reynolds defends the new cigarette by saying that the company is not encouraging anyone to take up the deadly habit of smoking. The company claims to be aiming advertising at adults who are already smokers and, more specifically, at adults who are smoking Marlboros, the largest-selling cigarette brand.
This argument is not only weak, it is ridiculous. Advertisers are always going to try to lure new customers to their products; after all, that
is what advertising is. If R.J. Reynolds was not seeking out new customers, the company would not have paid for a detailed marketing analysis to determine who is included in the most lucrative cigarette market.
This is not the first time that R.J. Reynolds has attempted to prey on a specific group to sell cigarettes. Less than a month ago, the company was test-marketing Uptown, a menthol cigarette with an advertising campaign targeted at Blacks. Studies have shown that Black smokers prefer menthol cigarettes, and advertisements for Uptown featured young Black people dressed stylishly and having a good time. Strong opposition forced the company to stop test-marketing the cigarette.
According to the World Health Organization, tobacco use kills more than a million people a year worldwide. In fact, cigarettes are one of the few products that kill people when used exactly as intended.
It seems obvious that if cigarettes were a new product introduced today, they would be outlawed from the market.
The damage already has been done for millions of people, but cigarette companies must be stopped from singling out new customers and luring them to become addicted to a deadly product.
Camille Krehbiel for the editorial board
Gromer university daily kansas
Briefly stated
Where were all the students? Students attending the Regents institutions should be ashamed of their apathetic approach to supporting higher education on Lobby Day. Fewer than 300 students attended the event in Topeka. Those who did go and Associated Students of Kansas should be commended on their efforts. The best way to tell the Legislature that financing for higher education is important is to go to Topeka as they did on Monday. It is a shame more students didn't care enough to go.
Some people will do anything to get into a KU basketball game, but non-students using someone's KUID is a bit much. Efforts to curb this practice, including assessing fines, are justified. Seats are limited for students and should be for students. What happens with a ticket is one thing, but using an KUID to get in, or in some cases for a profit, is wrong. Though scarce, general admission tickets can be found. Student tickets and KUID's should be reserved for KU students.
Members of the editorial board are Richard Brack, Daniel Niemi, Christopher R. Ralston, John P. Milburn, Liz Hueben, Cory S. Anderson, Angela Baughman, Andres Caveller, Chris Evans, Stephen Kline, Camille Krehbiel, Melanie Matthes, Jennifer Metz and Scott Patty.
U.S. shouldn't loosen sanctions on S.Africa
After 27 years of relentless oppression, the light of freedom shone on South Africa last week as Nelson
Mandela walked out of his prison cell and back to his home in Soweto. The dawn of a new era of South African history has broken from the darkness of apartheid. But the struggle for freedom for Black South Africans is far from over.
calls me. Mr from Yes, Nelson Mandela, the leader of the recently unbanned African National Congress and the uniting figurehead of the anti-apartheid movement, has been freed from unjust bondage. But the society he returns to remains nearly as oppressive as the day he was incarcerated.
The state of emergency declared by the
Blacks still are categorically excluded from the South African political process. The white minority continues to enforce the racist policies of apartheid by denying the Black majority its right to elect decision makers. The one person, one vote ideal remains but a distant hope.
Dan Grossman Staff columnist
previous administration under P.W. Botha remains in effect. The special powers granted to South African police by the declaration facilitate the abuse and denial of justice that have become routine in South African law enforcement.
Nevertheless, the impossible has happened. Nelson Mandela is a free man and the ANC is now a legal organization. Change is imminent in South Africa. Freedom is invincible.
The South African government under President F. W. de Klerk has softened its stance against reform. Despite objections from right-wing extremists who insist on the
maintenance of apartheid, de Klerk was realized that the future of South Africa is contingent upon the lifting of foreign economic sanctions.
The reguignant, racist policies of the white government of South Africa have made that country an economic and political outcast in the international scene. Sanctions, like those imposed by the United States in 1986 despite President Reagan's vea that banned all new investment and most South African exports, have backed the racist regime into a corner. International pressure, not the altruism of de Klerk, has initiated change in South Africa.
Unfortunately, some people in Washington see the freeing of Mandela and the legalization of the ANC as grounds for loosening the very sanctions that brought these changes about. Of course, these are the same people that opposed sanctions back in 1986 (i.e. Mr. Prudence, George Bush). To lift the sanctions now would be to ignore the fact that hundreds of political prisoners remain in unjust bondage, that the Black majority still
is completely excluded from the political process and that the oppressive state of emergency is still in effect.
Relaxing international pressure at this juncture would be playing into de Klerk's hands. His goal is to relieve his country of such pressure by conceding as little as possible to the anti-sparethold struggle. To date, his reforms have been of much more imagery than substance.
De Klerk has continuously voiced his adamant opposition to a one person, one vote electoral system. This is not surprising considering the fact that such a system would result in the ouster of the white regime in favor of the 76 percent Black majority. But this opposition to true democracy makes his commitment to reform suspect.
The sanctions imposed by the United States are limited. Several U.S. companies continue to do business in South Africa. The KU Endowment Association has yet to divert from such companies. Yet the limited U.S. sanctions have been effective, much more so
than the morally bankrupt, but prudent, policy of constructive engagement that preceded them during the Reagan-Bush administration.
Abandoning the means by which the U.S. and the international community have prompted changes in South Africa would be an unfortunate regression that would result only in the stagnation of the South African government's reform.
Sanctions must be maintained and strengthened if we are to see a truly free South Africa. After his release, Mandela pleaded for persistence in his speech outside of Cape Town's city hall: "We have waited too long for our freedom. We can no longer wait. Now is the time to intensify the struggle on all fronts. To relax our efforts now would be to make a mistake that generations to come would not be able to forgive."
▷ Dan Gosman is a Denver senior majoring in political science.
LETTERS to the EDITOR One great revue
On March 1, 2, and 3, a few hundred KU students will put on a show that will raise thousands of dollars for the United Way of Lawrence. The show, the Rock Chalk Revue, takes place in Hoch Auditorium, as it has for the past 41 years.
The groups involved in this show include four Greek groups, one from the scholarship halls and in-between acts from all sorts of students. This year's show is a great cooperative effort of several different student groups and promises to be as great a show as ever
So many students, I have found, know virtually nothing about the
show, or believe some things about it that are not true. Number one myth: It is all greek. Not true. This year two non-greek groups auditioned and one got in the show. This has widened the awareness of the show to the non-greek groups and, I hope, will increase awareness to the whole campus. At the rate it's going, in future years perhaps even a greater part of the University will be involved in the show.
Rock Chalk Revue is a high-quality, fun, student-run show. You'll see all sorts of people you know performing in the show. Your friend from Spanish class. That nice girl you always sit by in calculus. That cute guy you love in Western Civilization. You'll see the talent that the ordinary boys and girls next door have to offer. It is definitely a show you will enjoy.
And don't forget,the proceeds go to the United Way.
Shan Schwartz
Topeka sophomore
News staff
Richard Brack...Editor
Daniel Nieml...Managing editor
Christopher R. Relston...News editor
Lisa Moes...Planning editor
John Milburn...Editorial editor
Candy Niemann...Campus editor
Mike Consalde...Gorge editor
E. Joseph Zunge...Photo editor
given Klinen...Graphics editor
Kris Bergquist...Arte/Festuartis editor
Tom Eblen...General manager, news adviser
Margaret Townsend...Business manager
Tami Rank...Retail sales manager
Misy Miller...Credit management
Kathy Wolfe...Regional sales manager
Mike Lehman...National sales manager
Mindy Morris...Co-op sales manager
Nate Stamos...Product manager
Mindi Landi...Assistant production manager
Carrie Staninka...Marketing director
James Glassann...Creative director
Janet Rorholm
Wendy Steers...Consulted
Yearshaiba manager
Jeanne Hines...Sales and marketing admin
Business staff
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Bring Jack back in 1990 governor race
The kid next door starts screaming at 2 a.m. without fail, except when i'm awake anyway.
As I listened sleepsleeply one night to the young bananee in the next apartment, who seemed unimpressed by the new city noise ordinance, I pondered whom Gov. Mike Johnson would choose as his running male.
Fatigue does funky things to people
Lt. Gov. Jack Walker announced last fall that he wouldn't seek re-election. Fred Logan, former chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, was the pundits' pick for a while, but then the ebb and flow of conventional wisdom washed him from editorial pages.
A handful of newspapers have lightheartedly embraced the non-candidacy of Ray Call, executive editor of the Emporia Gazette, who first labeled Democratic Gov. John Carlin the Casanova of Cedar Crest because of his multiple-marital leadership style. But Call says he won't run and, if elected, won't serve. That seems to limit his chances.
I gave up. Like a lot of folks, I just couldn't guess how Mike Hayden's mind works. The wailing neighbor
kid finally dropped off to sleep and thoughts of such electoral balderdash waned. I started to snooze. The whole running mate thing grew fuzzier and more distant.
then the vision. At first it was like a floodlight shining in my face, blinding and burning. Then it took form. I saw the ghostly face beneath a scalp of thinning hair, and I knew.
Then the vision appeared.
It was Jack these days, which is a shame. He belongs in state government.
It's true that Jack's 1986 gubernatorial campaign wasn't the most effective in state history. He finished third in a primary field of seven Republicans, carrying only Donphan County. But his low-spending tactics, which utilized a small army of volunteer door-knockers, were admirable. He even managed to pick up a wife in the process.
At that rate, he only needs two
more campaigns to catch Carlin.
The state needs Jack not because he spent his two terms as secretary of state running around the globe giving his okey-dokey to foreign elections.
Nor because his campaign speeches invariably wax nostalgic about Abe Lincoln, about the experience of stumping at small cafes in western Kansas or about his experience as a restaurant entrepreneur.
Nor because he once growled at my roommate and a group of dim-witted students who inadvertently sat in the Brier family seats at a KU football game.
Come to think of it, the state probably doesn't really need Jack right now.
But '90 seems right for a Brier comeback.
Voters didn't think much of Jack in '86. Now they don't think much of anybody, which makes Jack the most experienced of the potential candidates. He was ahead of his time.
It's time to bring back Jack. He could run with Hayden, or he could be bold and run against him for the top spot. Some say taking on Hayden would be foolish. But Jack would be a better candidate.
It was in the vision.
Testifying at a State Senate hearing. Budig touted improvements in education from the first two years of the Margin of Excellence.
Of course, visions aren't perfect. For a while I doubted that the wavering image was Jack. After all, the image didn't say anything spontaneous, which meant it could have been Chancellor Gene A. Budig.
But, as the past two governors have proven, the state's chief executive must possess strictly limited authority. Budig proved too wise for the job.
"That quality must be maintained," he said, reading from prepared remarks. "Otherwise, it will be lost."
Budig continued, but the rest of his words were lost to onlookers who sought to absorb the eternal truth of that Yogi Berra-esque statement. The people of Kansas aren't ready for such profundity.
So the vision must have been Jack. He probably isn't interested in the atrophied of leutenant governor or in taking on Hayden. But it could
happen:
It's the stuff dreams are made of.
> Derek Schmidt is an Independence senior majoring in Journalism.
CAMP UNNEELY
BY SCOTT PATTY