Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 10, 1993 TAG: 9303100086
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
FORGET YOUR WALLET; FOR THIS IMAGE, YOU NEED SMOKE
Money is no good for buying any of the fashion items Virginia Slims is pushing. The cigarette brand's latest advertising campaign says forget your credit cards, too.V Wear, which Phillip Morris U.S.A. spokeswoman Karen Daragan described as a "hot, street-wise" look, can be bought only with UPCs, or product bar codes from the Slims cigarette packs.
For example, a four-strand pearl bracelet costs 60 UPCs; the "biker chic" leather jacket, 350 UPCs; the "I don't want to run the world, but I wouldn't mind taking it for a little ride" T-shirt goes for 30.
Calculating in dollars, with each $1.85 pack of cigarettes yielding one UPC, a smoker will spend almost $100 before collecting enough coupons for a bracelet.
The V Wear campaign made its debut Feb. 21 with advertising inserts in the country's major newspapers, including the Roanoke Times & World-News. It also was promoted the March issues of magazines aimed at women, such as Cosmopolitan and Glamour. The fashion sale will run through August.
Daragan described it as a lower-budget version of Marlboro's adventure promotion, which sells similar items for men. It shows people white-water rafting, motorcycling and horseback riding and is part of a campaign to gather 10 participants for a 600-mile trip through Colorado and Utah.
Marlboro is the country's best-selling cigarette; its sister cig, Virginia Slims, is tops among brands aimed at women, said Daragan.
The fashion mini-catalog isn't the only new twist at Virginia Slims. Its focus on "now" fashions steps away from its former "Then and Now" promotion.
"We no longer look at `then,' " Daragan said.
Tobacco, by the way, is still Virginia's largest cash crop - $197 million in 1991. But it's also a big headache as the controversy grows about health hazards of smoking and of secondhand smoke to non-smokers.
To assure the future of the crop, researchers are trying to find new uses for it. Among the lookers is Carole Cramer, plant molecular biologist at Virginia Tech, who is helping genetically engineer tobacco so it will produce anti-viral drugs and human blood protein.
Cramer cautions that she and her research colleagues are in the "very early stages." The research is an offshoot of other work Cramer has been doing for the Virginia Tech Agriculture Biotechnology Center.
The researchers know tobacco is transgenic, which means it carries a small piece of DNA from another organism. Of the 50 different plants that have been genetically engineered, tobacco appears to be the easiest, said Cramer, who came to Tech after four years at the Salk Institute on Biological Research.
Her group hopes to have a human protein produced within six months and be ready to plant a demonstration crop by next summer.
She said Crop Tech, a small start-up company, is ready to run with the findings when they are sufficient for the commercial market.
Other beyond-smoking hopes for tobacco include:
A biosoap made from tobacco plant extracts killed sweet potato whiteflies in tests.
Processed tobacco plant material used as mulch. The Virginia Organic Food Act passed in 1990 allows ground tobacco plants as fertilizer for products grown and labeled "organic."
Tobacco plant material as "litter" in chicken coops and dog houses to repell mites, ticks and fleas.
Now that stores no longer can demand credit card numbers when they accept customers' checks, they seem to be jotting down more general information, such as race, sex, weight, hair color and place of employment.
A manager at one major store said collecting such information isn't meant to offend anyone, but rather to have a brief description in case the store needs to get a warrant for a bad check.
But the check notes might not be as helpful as retailers think. Driver's license weight and height aren't always pure figures. Hair color can vary.
None of the information from the check can be sold. The 1993 General Assembly passed the Personal Information Privacy Act, which says companies can't market the information it collects from customers' checks or credit cards.
Also, merchants are required to notify purchasers if information gathered in other ways will be sold. In the past, many of our names have gone to telemarketers without our permission or knowledge.
Consumers have the responsibility of taking a violator to court to enforce the law, but a merchant found guilty can be fined $100, and the money goes to the customer.