Tobacco Documents Online

Project Scum

Abstract

R.J. Reynolds' "Project Scum" was a plan to ramp up marketing of Camel cigarettes to "consumer subcultures" in the San Francisco area, specifically to gay people in the Castro district, "rebellious, Generation X" -ers, people of "International influence" and "street people." The plan was to introduce Camel cigarettes into less traditional retail outlets, like "head shops."

The report notes that a rationale for this was the higher incidence of smoking and drug use in subcultures.

There are several versions of this report, ranging in date from 1995-97. They offer revealing "marginalia" (handwritten markings) on the pages. For example, the words "Gay/Castro" and "Tenderloin" are hand-written next to a bulleted list of consumer subcultures on one page. On another page that discusses the rationale for the program, a sentence that reads "higher incidents of smoking in subcultures" has the phrase "and drugs" written in. On a subsequent copy, the phrase "and drugs" is crossed out. One copy of the document has the word "Scum" in the title crossed out and the word "Sourdough" hand-written in, as though RJR realized too late the degrading manner in which they were referring to their customers.

The bigger question about this document might be, what consumer would buy a company's products if he or she knew that that in the back boardroom, the company was referring to customers as "scum"?

Fields

Notes

This document was loaded onto the RJR web site on January 26, 2001, so it does not appear on Tobacco DOcuments Online. You can find all three of the documents with the title "Project Scum" (dated 1995,1996 and 1997) by going to the R.J. Reynolds document web site and entering the search criteria "Prohect Scum." I cited the 1995 document.

Quotes

PROJECT SCUM

Background:

During the introductions of Red Kamel, additional opportunities to improve Camel presence became evident in San Francisco proper.

1. Consumer Subcultures --Alternative Life Style (handwritten: "Castro/gay") --International influence --Rebellious; Generation X --Street People...more applicable to Doral (handwritten: "Tenderloin"

KNOWNS

--Opportunity exists for a cigarette manufacturer to dominate... --Population and tourist flow make area highly visible. --Camel momentum appears to be sustained or growing (on its own) --Increased receptiveness on the part of store owners to Camel marketing/presence... --High incidence of smoking and drugs in subcultures [NOTE: "and drugs" was lined out by hand] --Haven't penetrated call universe adequately.

Company

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

Author

N/A Corporate Author (R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company)

Recipient

N/A

Region

United States

Litigation

N/A

Operation/Project

Project Scum

Type

Report, Graphics report

Subject

advertising campaign

consumer market

marketing

Target/ethnic (targeting ethnic markets)

Target/Low-Income (Target Groups)