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. OIRECTORS DiRECTORS W. N. REYNOLDS CNAIRMAN EXECUTrVE COMMITTEE JAS. A. GRAY S. CLAY WILLIAMS PRESIDENT CHAIRMAN BOARD OF DIRECTORS T. H. KIRK VICE PRESIDENT R. E. LASATER V ICE PRESIDENT C. W. HARRIS ViCE PRESiDENT M. E. MOTSINGER SECRETARv ~~'INST01~'-Sr1LF.Ai,r1'. G. September 10, 1935. William Randolph Hearst, Cuesta Encantada, San Simeon, Calif. My dear Mr. Hearst : J. W. OLENN MGR. TURnISN LEAF pEPT R.C. M A 0 ERRERN PURCNASiNO AaENT L. F . OWEN TRAFFiC MANApER R. O. SMO/1E TREAfURER J.C. WMIfAKER MCrR.EMPLOYMENTpEPT. Your letter to Mr. Berkowitz outlining your thoughts regarding the use of Comic Sections for advertising CAME Cigarettes did not come to my attention until a- weeke ago. Due to the, death of our former Chairman of the Board, Mr. Bowman Gray, and my frequent absences in Wash- ington, we had not held meetings with our Advertising Coun- sel, Mr. William Esty, for some time and he was reluctant to take up such an important matter with us without a per- sonal consultation. .-a To my great relief, I have just about finished winding up my part in affairs with which I was connected in Wash- ington. I have been reading your editorials with attention and appreciation. It is a fortunate circumstance that your powerful pen is telling the truth to your vast ~~f owing. , l~r. Esty^ ~and gave us a review of your attitude and comments on CAMEL advertising ` in the Comic Sections. I wanted to write you abut wishing to secure certain additional facts from New York had to delay until now. Meantime, I understand from Mr. Esty that you have issued definite orders to stop publica- tion of CAMEIL advertising in Comic Weekly Puck. I write you in full realization of the complete sin- cerity of your attitude but also with the feeling that your open-mindedness is such that you will readily reconsider your position if, in your opinion, the facts hereinafter out- lined justify such reconsideration. In any event, I should want to make this protest because I should dislike very much to leave you to believe in some of the premises on which the decision seems to be based and which from the record can be so readily shown to be incorrect. First, let me say that I understand and appreciate to V v .~ the fullest extent the spirit which prompted you to write ~ I'r. Berkowitz as you did. It is certainly true that "me in- oD Get a lift with a CAMEL!

! Mr. William Randolph Hearst--2 dustrieui.have f~~t y flouted, not only public good taste, but even„ public e c and morals to such an extent that drastic retribu~ion s followed. And, as you say, over-night reformation is not sufficient when the public is so treated and becomes really aroused. I would like to believejand do believeAthat those re- sponsible for the promot~qn~ of the tobacco industry are not only too intelligent but~1so too public-spirited to do the kind ~i~~,,,thing that would incur such public displeasure for themW~"'~e in the tobacco industry are not unaware that in many quarters we are measured by standards more social than economic. And with the example of what has happened to some other industries~.s we would be blind Indeed if we permitted ourselves to fa11 into their errors. We emphatically are not engaged in "a direct effort to teach the children to smoke cigarettes". Such an effort would not only be socially reprehensible but speaking economically it is not an indicated or desirable treatment of our adver- tising problem. As youA~~the cigarette industry is a highly competitive one. v_e~_y factor entering into the cost of our product, includin1g taxes, has for a long time been con- stantly mounting. The wholesale price of cigarettes has not had a compensating increase. This has brought about a condi- tion where the amount of money which we can spend for adver- tising is necessarily strictly limited. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company must spend its advertising money in such a way that every dollar is productive of quick results. In this situation we would not count it wise to spend our limited advertising funds to educate children n, he o th t-ey might produce sales years hence. Nor „~ e mora question, would it be economically sensible to try to get sales from children immediately. The consensus of the best surveys that have been made indicate that only one out of three adults in the United States smokes cigarettes. With two-thirds of the entire poten- tial adult market still unreacheanrand; 7t wo no~~ Ue sens e to earmark "f~Tor an at~emp~ t make customers-- deferred customers--of children. We are spending 15% of our entire advertising appropria- tion in Sunday Comics. That substantial percentage is not a fund to influence children but rather to reach the adults who read the Comics.

I Mr. William Randolph Hearst--3 Our advertising agency assured us, and the promotion efforts of the Comic Weekly Puck have always included the statement, that the percentage of adults reading the comics is unusually high--higher perhaps than in any other depart- ment of a newspaper. That is one prime consideration. Another fact that prompts us to use the comics is that through them we can present, in continuity style, athletio feats, adventure stories and other material concerning CAMEL smokers better than is mechanically possible in any other form of advertising. Obviously, those adults who regularly read the Comics are more accustomed to and are more attracted by this technique and are therefore more apt to see our ad- vertising in Comic Sections than elsewhere. As you probably know, those engaged in selling space in the Comic Weekly Puck, if talking to advertisers whose products are primarily bought and consumed by adults, present a convincing picture of the vast adult audience reached by this medium. The promotion material from your organization asserts that 78% of men and 80% of women read the comics. We do not regard the Comic Weekly Yuck as a juvenile publica- tion and we do not consider it as having been so presented to advertisers in general or to the public. In our opinion, the material p resented in our comic ad- vertisements has been of uniform high quality and of real interest to adult readers of Comic Sections. I would like to call your particular attention to the fact that never, at any time, in a single instance, has any attempt been made directly or indirectly to teach children to smoke or to in- fluence children in any way. Even if you concede that our motive is not to reach children and concede that it would be both socially and economically unwise to spend the money in an attempt to in- fluence children, you may still say that the public at large will misconstrue the motive and blame you as the publisher and us as the advertiser. I would agree with you that the point is important but I believe the evidence on it shows conclusively that there has been no such misconstruction. We regularly receive a large volume of mail from-th'e

I Mr. William Randolph Hearst--4 public commenting on our advertising. These letters, which number thousands every year, range from constructive comments written by sensible people to wholly irresponsible oommunioa- tions from "the lunatic fringe". We make it a point to read all such letters, including illiterate scrawls, most oarefully and, of course, we use them as indicators in the matter of advertising policy. Every time something is done which dis- pleases even a small fraction of the population, we hear about it immediately and in no uncertain terms. A case In point is an advertisement run some fifteen months ago, in which we showed a mother and two children going on a picnic, with the mother smoking a cigarette. The number of letters received on this point led us to establish a rule never to portray a mother smoking in the presence of her children. But, directly to our present point--for more than two years CAMS'L continuity strip type of advertising has been running in 149 Sunday Newspapers, with a total circulation exceeding 23 million. This represents 89% of all the Sunday circulation in this country. This, you will agree, is a very dense coverage of the United States with this type of adver- tising. With the proven tendency of people to write complain- ing about anything they do not like in cigarette advertising, I think it is highly significant that the number of letters written to all concerned during this period of more than two years is altogether negligible. Our observation and inquiry disclose that not more than six or eight letters have been written in that whole time to Hearst Newspapers and that the number of letters received by all other newspapers printing this type of advertising does not exceed half a dozen. We, ourselves, have received three letters on the subject. We know definitely from our experience that if there were any appreciable percentage of the population who resented it or looked askance at our comic strip advertising, we would have heard from it, not in terms of some dozen letters, but in a very substantial and unmistakable way. Knowing the high motives which have actuated you in this matter, I have felt it necessary to discuss it at this length in order to give you assurance that we do have and are dili- gent about living up to a definite sense of social responsi- bility and that if there were any evidence whatever that, rightly or wrongly, the public resented this type of advertis-

Mr. William Randolph Hearst--5 ing, nothing could induce us to continue it. I am hopeful that you will reconsider your decision in the light of the foregoing. Yours very truly, SM S ~ N