This bit of news, ladies and gentlemen, involves a few stories from the distant past. Way back in 1997, cigarette companies became subject to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement 97, which made it illegal for cartoon characters and other such fictional likenesses to be used in tobacco ads. Skip to 2007, when Camel Cigarettes, owned by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco company, decided it would be a great idea to do an advertising spread in Rolling Stone called “The Indie Rock Universe.” The ad featured cartoon drawings of the names of bands like Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Xiu Xiu, and Fucked Up, totaling 186 artists. Did Camel ask these bands if they could use their names in the ad? Nope. A class-action lawsuit was filed against R.J. Reynolds, Rolling Stone, and the Wenner Media Group by all artists pictured, which you can read about in this excellent post from our very own Hanky Panky.
While the class-action suit has not yet reached an agreement, other cases have: the lawsuits filed by nine state attorneys, which claimed that R.J. Reynolds acted against the aforementioned Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement by creating cartoon-like depictions of band names in a cigarette ad, which is exactly what the agreement is supposed to prevent. According to The Daily Swarm (via Pitchfork), the ruling was made by a Philadelphia judge, who must have had the strange sensation of shooting fish in a barrel. Now, R.J. Reynolds must "either run a 'youth oriented anti-smoking advertisement' in the magazine in the next year or pay a sanction of more than $300,000." Ironic, but somehow satisfactory.
Given the fact that intellectual property rights laws are pretty much designed for this sort of thing, I think we can be confident that the slandered bands will be compensated as well. I've said this before, and I'll say it again: Who fucks with Ian MacKaye!?
