Rolling Stone takes the Heat for the Camel Ad

In the Nov. 15th issue of Rolling Stone the magazine printed a Camel cigarette sponsored ad promoting a website and campaign devoted to “free range music” that supports independent record labels.

It seemed like a harmless campaign at first, but all bets were off when Anti smoking Activists heard about Camel's involvement in the project.

The cartoon insert is among several other inserts in Rolling Stone’s 40th anniversary issue. These inserts are what the magazine industry refers to as “butterfly gates” in which there are ad pages on the outside but it unfolds to reveal pages of articles inside.

The article inside the “butterfly gates” features, “Indie Rock Universe,” which presents a list of independent bands and a out of this world picture of planets, animals and spaceships by Benjamin Marra.

Although this was a creative way of promoting the campaign/website the magazine found itself under fire by several Anti smoking Activists. According to activists it blurs the line between advertising and editorial content.

“The fact that Rolling Stone produced the content, but displayed it in such a manner that it is indistinguishable from the Camel ad, only makes them an accomplice,” said Matthew L. Myers president of the organization, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, in Washington, in an interview with The New York Times.

According to Myers the insert might violate the 1998 settlement between tobacco companies and state attorneys general because the pictures look like cartoons, which can no longer be used in cigarettes ads.

“The insert is particularly egregious because Camel is most notorious for using cartoon characters to market cigarettes to children with the now-banned Joe Camel,” Myers added.

Even though Camel sponsored the ads they disputed the complaint and take no credit for the editorial content.

“There was a clear delineation between our ads on the outside pages and the inside foldout, which is all editorial content from Rolling Stone,” said David Howard, a spokesman for R.J. Reyonds Tobacco in Winston-Salem, N.C., in an interview with The New York Times.

After Camel’s spokesman made this comment it seemed at first that Camel was not willing to take responsibility for their actions. But after The New York Times interviewed someone at Rolling Stone, It was determined that Camel was telling the truth about the editoral content of the ad.

“Reynolds Tobacco had no idea it would take a cartoon format because the advertisers don’t know in advance about articles, just as the editors don’t see the advertising,” said Ray Chelstowski the Publisher of a unit of Wenner Media at Rolling Stone

Even though, Camel cigarettes had no idea what the cartoon format was going to look like it still suspiciously seemed like it was a cigarette ad.

Digital Rolling Stone: You've Come a Long Way, Baby

As it celebrates its fortieth birthday, Rolling Stone magazine continues to innovate, proving it's not yet ready to grow old.

Using a state-of-the-art interface that mirrors Adobe's Reader, visitors to Rolling Stone's Web site can, for the first time, read the latest issue of magazine—including all the ads—page by page, online, for free.

Additionally, readers can now buy a DVD-ROM box set featuring a digital version every past Rolling Stone issue—that's 1,026 magazines and over 115,000 pages.

"It's like having 40 years of issues with hyper librarian find anything and everything you want instantly," David Anthony, the publisher responsible for the DVD's release, told BostonNow. "We've made reading the magazine a very interactive. If you are a big fan of Cameron Crowe it's very easy to find every article he wrote for the magazine. Once you find what you want, you can then create your own mini anthology."

Rolling Stone has always been a trailblazer of its industry, from its early start as a counterculture hippie rag to unleashing gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson into the world.

It was also one of the first magazines with an Internet presence.

With a nod to Rolling Stone's latest archiving venture, I prowled Archive.org's Wayback Machine to go back and check out how the magazine's Web site has progressed throughout the years. Unfortunately many of the graphics are missing, but you can get a general idea of how the site looked in its early days.

Here is the first-ever page, registered June 6, 1997. It's basically a place-marker set by the Web site host, Firefly.

Within six months, the Web site was up and running. Check out the sparse text-based home page. You can click on the links to see some really flashy HTML programming.

A year later, the site took on a stylish, magazine-like home page—imagine that large, missing graphic as a full-color photo—and added "Rolling Stone Radio", as well as an A-Z artist look-up service that linked to the now-defunct music download service, tunes.com.

By the time Y2K rolled in, the site was beginning to look more like what we expect to see today. Check out the now-staple features like MP3s and webcasts. Remember, this was nearly eight years ago.

Rolling Stone's Web site also hosted a thriving Internet public forum that was shut down in May, 2004, because of continuous abuse and code-hacking. During its peak, though, readers throughout the world chimed in on everything from politics to Britney. For a startling—but creepy—glimpse into the past, take a look at these forum postings from September 14, 2001—just days after 9/11.

The site took on its current look around 2005.

By the way, the Wayback Machine is a fascinating tool for checking out how magazine Web sites have developed throughout the decade. Some other sites worth exploring are Time, Sunset magazine (its URL once belonged to someone else), the San Francisco Bay Guardian (all the way back to 1996!), and my favorite, SF State's [X]press.

40 Years of Excellence

2007 marks the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love, a landmark in America culture. 1967 was the year that the counterculture entered into America’s consciousness. It was also the year that a landmark in the American counterculture was born, Rolling Stone magazine. To celebrate, Rolling Stone is releasing three special commemorative issues. The first, released in May, featured 20 interviews with musicians, politicians, authors, and other celebrities of the baby boom generation about how they viewed and experienced that eventful time. The second special issue contained articles on the Summer of Love as it was happening in various cities in America and as well as England. The third will be released later this year and will deal with the challenges of the future.

The magazine was originally started by Jann S. Wenner and Ralph J. Gleason and based in San Francisco. It was as much a part of the city’s burgeoning counterculture scene as the Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane. The magazine chronicled the youth culture and the music it listened to. Rolling Stone was also made a name for itself with the way it covered politics. The magazine featured the works of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson and was a strong advocate for the anti-Vietnam War movement, scathingly covering the war in ways other news outlets and magazines did not. The magazine also launched the careers of writers like Cameron Crowe and MTV’s Kurt Loder.

Rolling Stone has gone through many changes throughout its long history. Probably the biggest is its relocation to New York. Also, the look of the magazine has changed quite a bit over the years. Rolling Stone’s first issue resembled a small DIY newsletter someone would hand you on the street more. The cover was sparse with only a simple picture of John Lennon, the name of the magazine and some small articles. As the years went on, the covers and the page layouts became more sophisticated, featuring pictures from the likes of Annie Liebowitz and Anton Corbijn. Unfortunately, Rolling Stone also began to run more fluff pieces, to the chagrin of more than a few, with articles on more mainstream artists as well as fashion.

However, some things haven’t changed, such as its unabashed politics, smart, incisive writing, and unique coverage of popular culture. This tradition is reflected by the magazine’s coverage of the Iraq War and the presidency of George W. Bush. When the build-up for the war first started, Rolling Stone was one of the few mainstream magazines whose editorial content took a strong, critical stance against it. The magazine has also been highly critical of President Bush, even going so far as to declare him our worst president ever one of its covers. It also continues to pay close attention to the youth culture, for better (Nirvana, the White Stripes) or worse (Zac Efron?!!), while also staying in touch with its past (Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Paul McCartney).

Rolling Stone is proof of that old cliché that even as some things change, some still stay the same. Despite many of the superficial changes that have occurred, Rolling Stone has stayed true to its roots by covering politics, music, and popular culture in its own unique way. Here’s to another 40 years of excellence!