What's bad for your lungs is good for your ears. Thanks to cash from cigarette companies, local clubgoers get down to disc jockeys and musicians who used to skip St. Louis for hipper, or richer, locales. During the past three years, cigarette manufacturers have doled out thousands of dollars for club owners to spend on entertainment. In return, nightclubs carry and, in some cases, advertise the company's brands.
Cigarettes lead to cancer and lung disease, but they are legal.
And until that changes, cigarette companies are free to push their product as long as they don't target kids. Camel, Marlboro and Kool are among the cigarette brands that have teamed up with local night spots to promote music. Tom Gray, whose bar Velvet is linked to Camel, says the program helps him pay top disc jockeys. Formerly those disc jockeys flew over St. Louis en route to the opposite coast, where big crowds meant big money. Velvet, which never booked national acts, now hosts touring disc jockeys two to four times a month.