WASHINGTON — The newest cigarette made specifically for women comes wrapped in a shiny black package with borders in shades of pink and teal.

If the packaging alone doesn't grab the attention of the fashion-conscious female, then perhaps the cigarette's advertising campaign will. In one magazine ad, the sleek boxes of smokes are framed by long-stemmed roses. "Light & luscious," the text promises invitingly.

Another ad prominently showcases a sophisticated evening gown, along with stiletto heels, a stylish handbag and other fashion accessories. The text suggests that women "inspire your inner style maven" and helpfully provides a Web site where they can find vintage clothing stores in their area. The address: camelsmokes.com.

"It's a very seductive form of advertising," Rep. Lois Capps said. It's also flagrantly irresponsible, she said.

Capps, D-Santa Barbara, has been leading a campaign in Congress to persuade magazines to reject advertising for the cigarette, Camel No. 9.

RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co., eager to capture a bigger share of the market of female smokers, rolled out the new cigarette in February with a campaign that included large ads in glossy publications that cater to women who care about fashion and glamour.

But Capps and others don't buy RJ Reynolds' claims that it is simply trying to win over women who already are smoking another brand. They believe that the cigarette maker is deliberately trying to get young women and teenage girls to take up smoking.

"This is not about getting 40-year-old women to switch (brands)," said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an anti-smoking group. "This is about a company that is trying desperately and blatantly to grab a larger share of the youth market.''

By accepting ads for the cigarette, women's magazines are complicit in the tobacco company's effort to create new smokers, Capps said.

The ads are irresponsible because they are promoting a product that is proven to cause cancer and other diseases, Capps said. But what makes them even more reprehensible, she said, is that they are appearing in magazines that are read by impressionable young women and teenage girls.

"What's really tragic is if you hook a teenager to smoke, they are going to be smoking a lot longer and they have that many more years to be vulnerable to cancer, to lung disease, to heart disease," said Capps, who worked as a school nurse before she was elected to Congress.

"This is not like running ads for toothpaste or any other kind of product," she added. "This is a health threat."

In June, Capps sent a letter to the publishers of 11 leading women's magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Elle, InStyle, Glamour and Vogue, asking them to voluntarily stop accepting advertising for Camel No. 9. The letter was signed by 40 other members of Congress.

When the magazines failed to respond, Capps and her colleagues fired off another letter in August. This time, seven wrote back. None of them promised to drop the ads. Several defended their decision to run the ads by pointing out that they have published articles about the health effects of smoking.

'Legal right to conduct business'

In his response, Vogue publishing director Thomas A. Florio lectured that Congress should focus on creating guidelines for the marketing, distribution and sale of tobacco products rather than trying to "bring pressure" on a magazine to "forgo its legal right to conduct business."

"Any other pressure or coercion to alter the legal right of any citizen or company doing business in America is at odds with the basic fabric of our country's value system," Florio wrote.

Asked to comment further, Vogue spokeswoman Elissa D. Lumley said that Florio's letter speaks for itself and that the magazine continues to encourage Congress to direct its efforts at the tobacco companies.

Myers called Vogue's reply "a stunning lack of responsibility." Capps said the response from Vogue and other magazines has been "less than satisfactory." And she vowed to keep up the pressure until they give in.

A couple of weeks ago, Capps showed up at a congressional hearing with poster-sized copies of the Camel No. 9 ads and branded them as "sleazy marketing." She also wrote an op-ed piece about the cigarette controversy that appeared Friday in the Washington Post.

Capps and other anti-smoking advocates also are pushing legislation in Congress that would give the Food and Drug Administration greater regulatory authority over tobacco products.

If approved, the legislation would not only allow the FDA to regulate tobacco as a drug, it would also specifically bar the kind of advertising that has been used to promote Camel No. 9, Myers said.

Adults said primary audience

RJ Reynolds spokesman Craig Fischel said critics who accuse the company of trying to push the new cigarette on teenagers and young women are mistaken.

"We manufacture and market for adults who have made the decision to smoke," Fischel said, adding that demographics show the magazines in which the company has advertised Camel No. 9 are read primarily by adults.

But lawmakers in Congress aren't the only public officials who are raising questions about the ads.

In a letter to RJ Reynolds in July, Ohio Attorney General Marc Dunn said the marketing campaign for Camel No. 9 appears to violate the settlement agreement that cigarette makers reached with 46 states nearly a decade ago. The agreement, which settled litigation brought by the states, prohibited the companies from advertising or marketing tobacco products to youths.

A follow-up meeting with a lobbyist for RJ Reynolds failed to satisfy the attorney general's concerns, said Dunn's spokesman, Leo Jennings III. "We continue to investigate ways in which we can hold them accountable," Jennings said.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown's office said last week that it also is concerned the Camel No. 9 ads may violate the settlement agreement.

Attorneys "are looking into those ads, and they are not satisfied with the response that RJ Reynolds gave to the attorney general of Ohio," spokesman Abraham Arredondo said.

Capps said the Camel No. 9 campaign "is the very reason tobacco needs to be regulated and the advertising of it needs to be regulated."