PR Team: Freedom Tobacco (New York) and Vorticom (New York)
Campaign: Launch of Legal cigarettes
Time Frame: March-August 2003
Budget: $25,000 for the five-month project
Freedom Tobacco CEO Patrick Carroll faced a tall hurdle when his startup company launched a new brand of cigarettes last fall: New York's citywide ban on smoking in public places, including smokers' most reliable refuges, bars. The ban, of course, is just part of the nation's long-running backlash against smoking, one that's taken the form of lawsuits, soaring taxes, ...