Tabacco sponsorship in Formula One

  • Thread starter Thread starter Craig HP
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Craig HP

Craig HP

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Thing is, I have always thought of this to be quite an intresting subject, and all becuase of the effect it has had on Formula One since 1968 when Team Gunston, sponsored by Gunston Tabbaco entered the South African Gran Prix, the first round of the season. Afterwards, the logos of these tabbaco companies started to appear everywhere, on the cars, on the drivers and pit crews ovals and helmets, on the pit wall crews clothing on billboards around the circuits, on fan merchandise, on team motorhomes and trucks, yes they appeared everywhere, even on the clothing of the pit babes. And I thought that since it has made such a big effect on the sport, I thought we should start a thread about it to look over the history of tabbaco sponsors in the sport, and to analyse the effect it has made aswell. Basiclly, just anything related with this exact topic.
 
All I know is Marlboro's barcode logos look way cool.
 
No, I think it looks rather |│▐│▌▌║||▌, Omnis. It seems pointless for just a few races a year.

What really gets me is that it's almost as if the EU wants to retroactively remove cigarette advertising; even Wikipedia is scared of litigation for allowing images of tabacco-sponsored cars to be distributed to EU nations.
 
Omnis
All I know is Marlboro's barcode logos look way cool.
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...and their cigarettes are delicious! Pupik, I believe Marlboro buys the adspace (@ premium price) all year for prestige when they occasionally get to slap their trademark on. As for litigation and retroactive hu-ha, let's not forget the original 13 colonies cash crop was tobacco, not alcohol. I'd rather share the road with a 'smoker' than a 'drinker', yet alcohol sponsorship isn't so bad? Johnny Walker anyone? Political Correctness is absurd! * lights cigarette, fade to black, aaand cue music *
 
I see absolutely nothing wrong with alcohol or tobacco sponsorship in racing. No one is forcing race fans to drink or smoke.
 
VNAF Ace
I see absolutely nothing wrong with alcohol or tobacco sponsorship in racing. No one is forcing race fans to drink or smoke.
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Some have young impressionable minds

I've read somewhere that Formula 1 tobacco sponsorship causes alot of the young males who watch the sport to pick up smoking

If it's gone completely next year, then good.
 
Earth
Some have young impressionable minds

I've read somewhere that Formula 1 tobacco sponsorship causes alot of the young males who watch the sport to pick up smoking

If it's gone completely next year, then good.
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It's up to parents to take care of their kids, not the FIA or the government.

I grew up watching IndyCar racing, and yet I never started smoking despite the fact that Marlboro sponsored Team Penske, KOOL sponsored Team Green, and Player's sponsored Forysthe Racing.

If you're going to say tobacco sponsorship causes a lot of young people to start smoking, then why not say alcohol sponsorship causes a lot of young people to drink too much? Why not say Red Bull sponsorship causes a lot of young people to drink too much sugar and caffeine? Why not say mobile phone sponsorships cause young people to talk too much over the phone?

I repeat, no one is forcing anyone to buy X product. It's up to parents to make sure their kids learn something called personal responsibility and self control.
 
VNAF Ace
It's up to parents to take care of their kids, not the FIA or the government.

I grew up watching IndyCar racing, and yet I never started smoking despite the fact that Marlboro sponsored Team Penske, KOOL sponsored Team Green, and Player's sponsored Forysthe Racing.

If you're going to say tobacco sponsorship causes a lot of young people to start smoking, then why not say alcohol sponsorship causes a lot of young people to drink too much? Why not say Red Bull sponsorship causes a lot of young people to drink too much sugar and caffeine? Why not say mobile phone sponsorships cause young people to talk too much over the phone?

I repeat, no one is forcing anyone to buy X product. It's up to parents to make sure their kids learn something called personal responsibility and self control.
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👍👍
 
Earth
Some have young impressionable minds

I've read somewhere that Formula 1 tobacco sponsorship causes alot of the young males who watch the sport to pick up smoking

If it's gone completely next year, then good.
Click to expand...

If that's what they're worried about, then they should target alcohol first. Then again you don't really need sponsorship to get teens drinking.
 
Just to point out I am not trying to encourage smoking, for 2 reasons...

1) Smoking gave my Grandad lung cancer which killed him so I would never smoke.
2) Jordan would pounce on it like a Lion on steriods.

And when I mention steriods I am not trying to encourage taking drugs either. Anyway, back to the point, I have a article in my Autosport magazine about tabbaco sponsorship in F1 and how it has risen and fallen over the years. I will dig it out today, but I am going to school in 10 minutes so I will have to upload the image later!

Edit: I noticed something when looking at a pre-race picture that was taken of the Monaco Gran Prix yesterday. The only tabbaco sponsor that appeared last year was Marlboro, on the Ferraris and on billboards around the track. However, this year I am guessing that they have gotten rid of it completly. I already knew that Marlboro decided they would use their barcode for the whole season as it seemed pointless displaying the Marlboro logo for just three races. However, it seems like there are no Marlboro billboards around the track. Look at these pictures...

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/photos/2008/gpmonaco/diapo_023.shtml
http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/photos/2008/gpmonaco/diapo_013.shtml
To me, it seems like where the Marlboro billboards would be, there are now just Monaco Gran Prix billboards...
 
They should be advertising cars with healthy foods and drinks, not things that will rot your insides and contain addictive ingredients.

Like Red Bull, for example. Oh wait...
 
Would these young impressionable minds really associate race cars' advertisements with excitement as every neurologist and psychiatrist seemed to suggest in the late 1990s? Who would watch it and be interested and know what Marlboro is? Didn't they ban the chevron too?

I am sort of skeptical when it comes to the pre-cast reasons offered by science with association of fast cars and their advertisements. Half of the young crowd would likely watch NASCAR anyways...

Gregor Grant: "And has anyone tried lighting a [cigarette] in an open single-seat race car?" (World Champion, p.107)
 
I don't mind cigarette or alcohol branding on cars at all. I think banning cigarette branding advertising on the F1 cars is pretty pointless. It's no worse than how they have Budweiser on some cars in NASCAR or how there's a McDonald's sponsored car in IndyCar (previously ChampCar).

I think that cigarette sponsoring was good for the sport because it provided a lot of money to pay the drivers and the team, and at the end of the day that's what really matters, sponsorship to pay for the whole team.
 
Here is that magazine article in the autosport magazine I was talking about. I have uploaded the images onto my Imageshack acount. Enjoy!

 
MustangSVT
I don't mind cigarette or alcohol branding on cars at all. I think banning cigarette branding advertising on the F1 cars is pretty pointless. It's no worse than how they have Budweiser on some cars in NASCAR or how there's a McDonald's sponsored car in IndyCar (previously ChampCar).

I think that cigarette sponsoring was good for the sport because it provided a lot of money to pay the drivers and the team, and at the end of the day that's what really matters, sponsorship to pay for the whole team.
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Bigger teams always get the big tabbaco sponsers, which always means they get more money than the small ones. And so, the bigger teams have more money to develop their cars, while the smaller teams have a bag of peanuts, (not literally) leading to them falling a long way behind the front runners!
 
It's rather a moot point given that tobacco advertising is going to be banned in F1 anyway, but even if it wasn't, there is still the issue of tobacco advertising laws that exist in individual countries to be addressed... the continued use of tobacco company logos on cars/tracks might be good for the F1 teams, and even good for the sport itself, but it would be seriously bad news for those of us F1 fans who live in countries where tobacco adverts on TV are to be completely banned... not only would European GP's disappear from the calendar, we wouldn't be able to watch the remainder of the races on TV either, as European broadcasters would face sanction.

In other words, forcing F1 teams to find alternative sponsors and telling the tobacco companies to clear off is no problem for me, if it means that I get to watch F1 races live on telly without having to subscribe to Channel 胡锦涛感谢韩援助 :sick:

So yeh, I don't have a problem with the principle of tobacco companies sponsoring F1, but given the choice of Monza, Imola, Silverstone, Monte Carlo, Catalunya, Hockenheim and the Nurburgring OR keeping a few Marlboro logos knocking around for old-time sake, it's a no-brainer...
 
Ferrari have got over the ban quite well, just about everybod knows the brand. I don't think its just tabacco companies that bring in alot of money. Mclaren are backed by a bank and Vodafone. Renault are backed by The ING Group, which is a financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, insurance and asset management services, according to Wiki. Williams is backed by a company which is based in Telecommunications. Red Bull is Redbull, Toyota electrical brand.

Im sure that these can and could put as much or more money into the team.
 
Only_in_f1
Williams is backed by a company which is based in Telecommunications.
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Remember a few years back when the tabacco sponsership arguement was getting going? Williams got sponsered by a company that helps stop people smoking :)
 
It seems that these days people would much rather spend their time smoking themeselves to death than watching a HD Television! :odd:
 

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