(HealthDay) -- Forcing yourself to stop smoking may seem like an impossible dream. Now, a Canadian cigarette marketer is turning that idea on its ear, offering the chance to become an operative in a smokers' "killer club."
Imperial Tobacco spokesman Yves-Thomas Dorval says the promotion is aimed at current smokers, not at hooking new ones. Smokers are invited to call a toll-free number, which appears under special pull tabs on packs of Players and du Maurier cigarettes.
A vague "Mission Impossible"-style message invites them to enroll for a chance to win $5,000. It also puts them on a mailing list for promotional materials.
C-Health quotes a spokesman for the Canadian Cancer Society as saying the idea of a club for smokers plays on their fears of being alienated. Dorval adds that the spy motif is purely for fun.
Although Canadian officials tell C-Health that the campaign is legal, cigarette campaigns in other countries have met with a different response. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission found that R.J. Reynolds' Joe Camel campaign was illegal. And this article describes how the battle lines have been drawn in various European countries.
