"Special edition cigarette packs featuring Washington landmarks, including the Pike Place Market and Mt. Rainier, are being co-opted to sell a product that is responsible for killing about 7,500 people in our state every year," says Governor Chris Gregoire in a statement that just arrived. “I call on R.J. Reynolds to halt their cynical campaign and not use our local landmarks for their gain.”

I don't smoke, my grandmother died a 20-year death from the protracted impacts of lung cancer, half of my family is asthmatic, and I think tobacco/nicotine is a stupid drug (expensive, nasty, and no good high). So I'm not really in the target demographic. But personally, I'd be less inclined to buy a supergay pack of Pike Place Market cigarettes.

The gov's rant continues after the jump.

“I am alarmed and disappointed at R.J. Reynolds’ new marketing campaign which exploits the name and image of Seattle to recruit young smokers. Special edition cigarette packs featuring Washington landmarks, including the Pike Place Market and Mt. Rainier, are being co-opted to sell a product that is responsible for killing about 7,500 people in our state every year.

“We have worked hard to help people break free from tobacco addiction and the suffering and death it causes individuals and families. Washington has 320,000 fewer adult smokers and 65,000 fewer youth smokers than before we started our Tobacco Prevention and Control Program 10 years ago.

“This campaign threatens to destroy these gains by claiming that their cigarettes are an opportunity ‘for a glowing future’ when the opposite is true—they are a one-way ticket to disease and addiction.

“I call on R.J. Reynolds to halt their cynical campaign and not use our local landmarks for their gain.”