Rock bands' Camel challenge up in smoke

Camel cigarette-backed advertising, to which indie rock bands objected but lost when a court ruled that “The Farm” campaign within a Rolling Stone feature including their names is protected by the First Amendment.

The First Amendment won in a battle between indie rock bands and Rolling Stone magazine over Camel cigarettes.

In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel California's 1st District Court of Appeal dismissed a lawsuit against Rolling Stone in which 186 bands accused the magazine of using their names to sell advertising to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., the maker of Camel cigarettes, in the November 2007 edition.

The suit, filed Dec. 17, 2007, by Xiu Xiu and another band on behalf of the bands, claimed Rolling Stone's Indie Rock Universe feature was masked within a fold-out advertisement for Camel's indie rock-based “The Farm” campaign.

According to court documents, the bands alleged that Rolling Stone used the names of the bands and the artists for commercial gain.

The bands argued that the “integrated” layout implied that they endorsed Camel cigarettes, however the state appellate court disagreed.

In their opinion, the judges wrote that they found no evidence that R.J. Reynolds had influenced Rolling Stone's editorial content and that its main purpose is to publish a magazine, which is noncommercial speech.

“Simply put, there is no legal precedent for converting noncommercial speech into commercial speech merely based on its proximity to the latter,” Justice Robert Dondero wrote for the court. “There is also no precedent for converting a noncommercial speaker into a commercial speaker in the absence of any direct interest in the product or service being sold.”

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