Imagine this: There's a female subsistence farmer in Burkina Faso, one of Africa's least developed nations. For years she's made her living gathering nuts and pounding them into a butter used in food, pharmaceutical creams, and cosmetics sold in Europe. She makes about $80 a month. But recently she and other women formed a collective and landed a contract with an overseas cosmetics company, which ordered an unprecedented 100 tons of butter and doubled her yearly income. As she contemplates her new prosperity, she lights a Virginia Slims cigarette—the international symbol of confidence, independence, and economic empowerment. As she inhales the heady smoke, the well-known tag line drops into her thoughts: "You've come a... More >>>