Conscious Choice: Your Responses on Running American Spirit Cigarette Ads

July 2004 | Choice Feedback

Your Responses on Running American Spirit Cigarette Ads

In June’s Conscious Choice, CEO Ron Williams announced that the five Dragonfly Media publications (of which Conscious Choice is one) would not run ads for American Spirit (organic) cigarettes. We received many letters from readers on the subject; here’s a sampling...

IT’S VERY clear to us that the ad would mislead the consumer. We call it a lie. There is no “natural” cigarette. Thanks for having the integrity to see through it and put a stop to this kind of commercialism.

Roxanne McDaniel & Sean O’Malley, Internet

I NOTICED a shoe ad in your pages. Do you refuse their ad because they sell leather shoes? Whole Foods sells products with high fructose corn syrup, sodium laurel sulphates, and meats, besides being anti-union! I can make an argument to refuse their ads. But I won’t.

Your job is to survive as best you can as a business to provide a quality magazine, a venue for advertisers to find their customers and to provide a stable job environment for your employees. Do what you need to; compromises are a part of life.

Martyn Luberti, Madison, Wis.

I FIND your innocence on this matter quite comical. After all, when one reaches a certain age smoking is a conscious choice. I would have made R.J. pay you the money to run the ads. It is a conscious choice we each make. Your magazine is refreshingly innocent in this day and age ... but this is real life and real life is business and business is just that.

Lynne O’Rourke, Chicago

Diamond Story Backlash

YOUR MAY 2004 cover story on conflict free diamonds (”To Die For”) looks good and is very interesting. However, I felt that I should clarify that Global Witness does not see the Kimberley Process “as a joke.” Global Witness strongly supports the Kimberley Process and is working to ensure that it is effectively implemented and strengthened to ensure that diamonds never again fuel conflict.

However, we see that the self-regulation the diamond industry has adopted is something that can’t be taken seriously due to the fact that the industry is not delivering on its promises to combat the trade in conflict diamonds. The industry self-regulation was aimed at supporting the Kimberley Process and helping to prevent the trade in conflict diamonds. Our report Broken Vows (see www.globalwitness.org) exposes how the diamond industry, in particular the U.S. diamond jewelry retail sector, is failing to effectively implement and monitor the self-regulation, thus giving it very little credibility to consumers wanting assurances that diamonds are conflict free.

Corinna Gilfillan, Global Witness

PLEASE CHECK with a reliable gemologist before making foolish statements, for instance: “Synthetics, such as cubic zirconia, boast the exact chemical makeup of diamonds and have all the dazzle of the real thing.”

For one thing, cubic zirconia (CZ) is not a synthetic diamond. It is either a diamond simulant or substitute. It certainly does not have anywhere near the same chemical makeup of diamond, nor is it even remotely close. There are synthetic diamonds on the market but they are not CZ; and at the moment they are both expensive and extremely rare. Incidentally, CZ does not have all the dazzle of the real thing. They are nowhere near as hard as diamond (i.e. you will see scratches on them fairly quickly) and they don’t appear to be the same size for the weight they are.

I truly hope, too, that the couple in your article don’t drive a car or use a computer, as they both contribute far more to the destruction of the environment and death among developing nations than any diamond ever has.

Daniel R. Spirer, Graduate Gemologist, Cambridge, Mass.

I OBJECT to your characterization in the sidebar of your diamonds cover story (”Instead of a Ring...”) in which you describe the benefit of purchasing vintage jewelry as: “you’ve effectively cheated the jewelry industry out of a potential customer.”

Most of us honest, very hard-working jewelers have taken the appropriate steps to insure that the diamonds we buy are not part of the approximate four percent of diamonds involved in the conflict issue. This comes from someone who tries to tread lightly on the earth and makes conscious choices every day.

Cindy Crounse, Graduate Gemologist, Voorheesville, NY

Author of the story, Mandy Burrell replies: I regret erroneously stating cubic zirconia had the exact chemical makeup as diamonds. I accepted that belief as truth from a second-hand source and certainly should have double-checked my “fact” with a gemologist.

However, I stand by the rest of the story’s facts. It’s worth noting that “facts” are sometimes questionable when considering their origin: For instance, the estimate that only four percent of diamonds traded worldwide are “conflict” diamonds is a number attributable to none other than diamond giant, DeBeers (which testified before a committee in Washington in 1999 that only 3.7 percent of diamonds traded worldwide are “conflict” diamonds). Meanwhile, estimates that don’t originate within the jewelry industry claim that at least 20 percent of diamonds traded worldwide are “conflict” diamonds.

The Real Role Model?

I EAGERLY read Bonnie Minsky’s column in Conscious Choice each month. In the April 2004 issue (”Try These Super Foods”), I was very surprised that she mentioned Trader Joe’s and not Whole Foods. Whole Foods has paved the way for organic foods and is much more involved in healthy food choices. Trader Joe’s is mostly conventional and, as a matter of fact, I’ve never seen a Trader Joe’s ad in Conscious Choice. Recently, while checking out and engaged in conversation with a T.J.’s cashier I made mention of the low amount of organic produce and the cashier asked me, “What does organic mean?”

David Aaron, Chicago

Bonnie Minsky responds: I used Trader Joe’s merely as an example and did not intend it as an endorsement for any store or an oversight of others. I probably chose not to use Whole Foods as an example because the public is already well aware of their stores’ commitment to organic and environmentally sensitive farming. This is one of the main reasons my family and many of my clients shop there every week. Your Trader Joe’s employee comment may reflect an inadequate training policy or merely ignorance on the part of the employee.

We want to hear from you. Send your letters to: Choice Feedback, Conscious Choice, 920 N. Franklin, Suite 202, Chicago, IL 60610. [click to e-mail]. Letters should include the writer’s name, address, and phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity or space.

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