ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 13, 1996 TAG: 9610110013
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: SKIP WOLLENBERG ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tobacco king Philip Morris Cos. is adding a flashy magazine to the cache of goodies it is giving away to cement its Marlboro brand's claim on the allegiance of active young men who smoke.
But tobacco opponents say the cigarette maker's decision to start its own magazine is a sign of desperation as the industry faces new government-imposed constraints on how it markets its products.
The world's biggest tobacco marketer hired the custom publishing arm of Hachette Filipacchi Magazines to create the quarterly lifestyle magazine called Unlimited: Action, Adventure, Good Times. Its debut is expected next month.
While its best-selling Marlboro brand name doesn't appear on the cover, it will be identified on the masthead inside as the magazine sponsor.
Philip Morris isn't saying how much it is investing in it.
The magazine will feature articles that should appeal to adult men in their 20s on subjects such as rock climbing, finding the best pool halls and camping with your girlfriend.
Publisher Michelle Berman said that will make it competitive with magazines read predominantly by young men like Sports Illustrated, Details, Rolling Stone and GQ.
But unlike those magazines, Unlimited won't be sold at newsstands. Philip Morris plans to mail the first issue for free to 1.5 million adult smokers selected from its own huge database. It expects to send another 500,000 copies or more to smokers who fill out a form available where cigarettes are sold requesting a copy.
Marlboro will be the only tobacco advertiser in the magazine, but Berman is soliciting other advertisers. She said about a third of the 128-page premiere issue is advertising for companies in industries like consumer electronics, men's grooming products and sporting equipment. A single full-page, four-color ad costs $30,000.
The magazine comes as new government regulations would curtail tobacco advertising. For example, the new rules would say cigarette ads could only be in black and white without illustrations in magazines reaching sizable numbers of people too young to smoke legally.
``The real reason they are doing this is they are cut out of tons of ways of advertising,'' magazine consultant Martin Walker said.
But Karen Daragan, a spokeswoman for Philip Morris USA, said the magazine has been in the works for two years rather than in response to the federal regulations. She said it is ``another tool'' the company can use to reward its customers' loyalty to the Marlboro brand.
Marlboro already has programs under which it distributes merchandise ranging from backpacks and sunglasses to cigarette lighters at no charge to customers who submit enough Marlboro coupons.
Tobacco critic John Banzhaf said bankrolling an entire magazine ``looks like an act of desperation to push a product.''
Philip Morris isn't saying how much it is investing, but the magazine's consultant estimated it may cost up to $3 million an issue for a glossy magazine with 2 million circulation.
Banzhaf, the executive director of the anti-tobacco organization Action on Smoking and Health, said Marlboro marketers probably hope the magazine makes readers feel smoking fits well with an adventurous lifestyle and that tobacco opponents are wimps.
While there may be no overt efforts in the magazine to promote smoking, he expects Marlboro will leave subtle suggestions that smoking is good - a photograph with an attractive person smoking, for instance.
Daragan and Berman said there are no plans to deal with smoking in the magazine and no people smoking in the photographs inside.
But Philip Morris has previously published a magazine that openly advocated protecting the rights of smokers. Philip Morris Magazine was launched in 1985 and its circulation rose to a peak of 12 million people in 1991. It was folded the next year, Daragan said, because a number of other smoking rights publications had arisen and its magazine was no longer needed.
She said Unlimited is different in that it is designed for Marlboro consumers who ``may or may not be involved in the issues'' surrounding smoking. ``This is purely a marketing vehicle,'' she said.
But Banzhaf said Philip Morris knows many readers won't be sophisticated enough to appreciate the difference between a magazine developed expressly for an advertiser and one published independently by a media company.
``When people see an ad, alarm bells go off. When you are casually reading a story in a magazine, your guard isn't up but you get that message,'' he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Philip Morris' Unlimited magazine will featureby CNBarticles that are expected to appeal to adult men in their 20s on
subjects like rock climbing, finding the best pool halls and camping
with your girlfriend.