Court says 'Camel Farm' violated ban

SEATTLE, July 15 (UPI) -- A four-page spread in Rolling Stone magazine showing "Camel Farm" violated Washington state's ban on cartoons promoting cigarettes, a court says.

The appellate panel, in a decision Monday, reversed a judge's ruling that "Camel Farm" was within legal bounds, The Seattle Times reported. The judges sent the case back to the lower court to decide what penalties R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. should face.

The "Camel Farm" ad in 2005 was intended to associate the brand with alternative rock music. The lower court judge found it did not play the same function as "Joe Camel," at one time a feature of Camel ads.

The tobacco companies agreed in 1998 as part of the national tobacco settlement to stop using cartoon figures that might appeal to children.

"The Camel Farm imagery depends entirely upon the suspension of the laws of nature," Judge Anne Ellington wrote in Monday's decision. "Under a blue sky in a pastoral Eden, roosters hitch rides on floating tractors, speakers grow out of the ground and radios fly. This is in a world where the natural laws do not obtain, where cancer and serious health problems can cease to exist."