According to this AP story, redneck crooner, Gretchen Wilson, has received some unwelcome mail from Tennessee’s attorney general.
The state attorney general wants the country singer who made the song “Redneck Woman” a hit to stop “glamorizing” the use of smokeless tobacco at her concerts.
State officials said Gretchen Wilson can be seen on concert jumbo screens pulling a can of Skoal from her pocket while performing her new song, “Skoal Ring.”
That may violate the 1998 settlement between states and tobacco companies forbidding tobacco ads targeting young people, Attorney General Paul Summers said.
The landmark $206 billion tobacco settlement “provided that advertisements such as this would be and should be prohibited,” Summers said.
The U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co., which makes Skoal, signed on to the tobacco settlement and agreed not to sponsor concerts under any brand names or enter into any sort of agreement with an artist to display or make reference to their products.
U.S. Smokeless Tobacco does not have an agreement with Wilson or any artists to promote its products, said company spokesman Mike Bazinet. Summers said his office is also contacting the company about the use of its products at Wilson’s concerts.
According to this update, the performer will keep her can of Skoal in her back pocket from now on.