The maker of Camel cigarettes has agreed to pay Connecticut $150,000 for running cartoon ads that the state claims violated a decade-old master tobacco settlement.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced the settlement Friday with R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., which insists it did nothing wrong. The settlement covers the state’s legal costs.
Blumenthal sued RJR in 2007, alleging a Camel advertising spread in the Nov. 15, 2007 edition of Rolling Stone magazine used cartoons in violation of the 1998 master settlement between states and tobacco makers.
The company also agreed to end its “The Farm: Free Range Music” campaign, which Blumenthal alleged violated the tobacco agreement’s ban on cartoons in cigarette advertising.
The AG said the agreement prohibits cartoons and because they entice children and teenagers to smoke.
