Judge, Curtis H.
This memo was used as a trial exhibit in the Broin case.
This memo dated August 1978 was sent to Curtis Judge, President of the Lorillard Tobacco Company, from Lorillard area sales manager Ted L. Achey. In it, Achey discusses the market success of Newports among African-American and "young adult" groups. Achey emphasizes that,
"...the base of our business is the high school student."
Achey also says that Newport in the 1970s is "turning into the Marlboro of the 70's" [referring to the fact that Marlboro was (and still is, incidentally) the most popular brand among youth who are starting to smoke] and that Newport is "the 'IN' brand to smoke if you want to be one of the group." This passage indicates that tobacco companies value peer pressure among young smokers because it determine which brand many youth will smoke. Peer pressure of this type can greatly increase the sales of one brand of cigarettes over another. This memo appears to say that Lorillard valued this "in" status for NEWPORT since it would boost sales of their Newport brand.