SECRET MEMOS SHOW R.J. REYNOLDS TARGETED TEEN-AGERS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secret R.J. Reynolds memos show the No. 2 cigarette
maker targeted teen-agers as young as 13 in a plan to steal its
competitors' youngest smokers -- and even created a special brand aimed at
boys.

Code-named Project LF, a 1987 memo stamped ``RJR Secret'' says the company
created a ``wider-circumference nonmenthol cigarette targeted at young
adult male smoker (primarily 13-24 year old male Marlboro smokers).'' Camel
Wides eventually were sold.

Other RJR papers illustrate that the highly popular Joe Camel campaign, the
hip cartoon character that peddled the Camel brand until last year,
targeted teens despite the company's repeated denials.

A 1973 marketing memo says that to help lure ``younger smokers'' away from
Philip Morris' Marlboros, the leading teen brand, ``comic strip type copy
might get a much higher readership among younger people than any other type
of copy.''

The document defined ``younger smokers'' as those ages 14 to 24.

Shortly thereafter, the Joe Camel cartoon debuted in France. He was brought
to the United States in 1987, and Camel rose to become to become the No. 2
brand among teens.

RJR provided the papers to California attorneys as part of a $10 million
settlement of lawsuits brought by San Francisco and other communities that
accused Joe Camel of targeting teens.

In releasing the papers Wednesday, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said he
will urge Attorney General Janet Reno to investigate them for evidence of
perjury because the documents appear to contradict RJR executives'
testimony in congressional hearings.

RJR insisted it does not market to teens, did not design ads to attract
teens and never even surveyed anyone under age 18 to determine smoking
habits. The documents outline ads and marketing campaigns specifically
designed for teen-agers and contain a poll of 11,000 14- to 17-year-olds
that researched teen smoking habits.

The papers also complicate congressional consideration of the proposed
national tobacco deal, Waxman said. This month, lawmakers will begin
debating a settlement that would end state lawsuits against tobacco
companies -- and forbid most smokers' own lawsuits -- if the industry pays
$368 billion over 25 years and curbs marketing practices.

``Our worst fears about what the tobacco companies might be doing to get
kids to smoke were justified,'' Waxman said. ``These documents are going to
make it hard to convince the American people we ought to be passing a law
to forgive the tobacco companies for their past practices, as reprehensible
as these documents show they were.''

The documents make ``clear the extent to which RJR and other tobacco
companies are targeting our kids,'' said San Francisco City Attorney Louise
Renne. ``If you can get a young person to smoke before they're 18, they are
then hooked for life.''

RJR did not immediately return calls for comment. The company ended the Joe
Camel campaign last year after the Federal Trade Commission moved to ban
the character.

Critics' first attempt to question RJR about the papers could come this
month. Rep. Thomas Bliley, R-Va., wrote the nation's top five tobacco
executives Wednesday to request that they attend a Jan. 29 congressional
hearing on the tobacco deal.

Already released documents have uncovered industry attempts to target
minors to take up smoking -- because studies show people who don't begin
smoking before 18 probably never will. RJR competitor Liggett Group last
year even admitted the industry targets teens.

But the new papers provide the first detailed look at RJR, showing a
company worried about future profits because its chief competitors seemed
to have locked up the youngest smokers.

``This young adult smoker, the 14-24 age group ... represents tomorrow's
cigarette business,'' says a 1974 RJR marketing presentation. But Philip
Morris and Brown & Williamson had more smokers that age, the paper goes on
to say, which ``suggests slow market share erosion for us in the years to
come unless the situation is corrected.''

So RJR developed a marketing plan that its top officials hoped would help,
as evidenced in a 1980 memo by future company chief executive G.H. Long:
``Hopefully, our various planned activities that will be be implemented
this fall will aid in some way in reducing or correcting these trends,'' he
wrote.

The strategy included ``a direct advertising appeal to the younger
habits,'' with ``more true-to-life young adult situations.'' The ads were
to run in magazines, such as Sports Illustrated, that are widely read by
teens. Efforts to target young males specifically included sponsoring
sports-car racing and developing T-shirts and other paraphernalia that
could provide ``a million walking billboards for our brands.''