To keep alive their shrinking market, tobacco companies have shown marketing genius by creating more than 300 brands that variously boast of being longer, slimmer, cheaper, flavored, microfiltered, pastel colored or even striped. A new R.J. Reynolds brand called Uptown looks typically glitzy with its black- and-gold box and promise of a tasty menthol blend. But the cigarette has provoked a response its maker never anticipated: passionate protest. Last week the tobacco company, which intended to begin test-marketing the cigarette next month in Philadelphia, canceled those plans after community groups and health organizations vehemently criticized the product. The reason: Uptown is...
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