US Grand Prix and cigarette advertising

Factual Questions
1

I spent a few minutes watching the morning practice session of the Formula One United States Grand Prix today.

I’m casually aware that there is a ban on cigarette advertising in stuff like racing here in the US (although NASCAR’s Winston Cup comes to mind as a notable apparent exception). For this reason, I wasn’t surprised to see that a number of teams had to alter their livery to remove tobacco sponsors. The ones that I observed specifically were Ferrari (Marlboro), Jordan (Benson & Hedges), BAR (Lucky Strike), and Benetton (Mild Seven). The usual liveries on all teams can be seen here.

That’s all well and good, but the McLaren team’s title sponsor is West - also a cigarette company - but their advertisements remained in place.

My question is: why is West apparently exempt from the tobacco ad ban?

On the McClaren page I linked to above, West is described as being marketed in “Western, Central and Eastern Europe, and on the growth markets in South-East Asia and China.” In other words, not in the US, which may explain why I’d never even heard of them until I saw them sponsoring McLaren and looked them up. Is it possible the the ad ban does not apply to companies that don’t market their product in the US?

If so, does anybody know why?

2

An observation: There are several cigarette companies sponsoring racing in the US. CART teams are sponsored by Player’s Tobacco (well, that’s a Canadian product, so maybe it’s different like you said) and KOOL (wait, that’s marketed in America! So that can’t be it). (Then of course there also is - at least was - a team sponsored by Nicorette…)

Being a race fan yet never really bothering to wonder about this kind of tobacco-ad madness except when it directly affected me - in other words, never - I decided to do some research. A quick search on NASCAR’s website produced the following:

In NASCAR, RJ Reynolds can only promote one of its brands of cigarettes and only under one form of sponsorship, due to the 1998 tobacco settlement. They continue to sponsor the Winston Cup and the No Bull Five as well as similar special events under that umbrella. Cite

Apparently, the tobacco settlement dictates that “tobacco companies can post outdoor advertising 90 days before and 10 days after a sponsored motor-sports event.” There is also a ban on televised advertising that critics say tobacco companies circumvent when they advertise on race cars which are then televised during the event. In addition, there are restrictions on outdoor advertising and brand-name sponsorships (I assume this is why RJ Reynolds can only sponsor things for Winston now). Cite

A Google search brought up mostly articles relating to what I found from NASCAR.

However, as far as Formula One is concerned, tobacco sponsorship seems to be iffy no matter where the race is being held. The European Union banned tobacco advertising at all international events, including F1 races, but later waived that decision. Individual nations, however, decided to go through with it on their own. It all seems pretty strange. Cite

My guess, then, would be that those teams whose livery was altered for the US Grand Prix are sponsored by companies who, in some way, would be violating the US Tobacco Settlement’s sponsorship rules. Promoting more than one brand, something like that. Or maybe they dropped the sponsorship for the weekend as a preventative measure because it’d be easier than trying to wade through the red tape.

3

Complicated story. Cigarette brands not sold in the US aren’t subject to the (semi-voluntary) federal advertising restrictions the government and the US tobacco companies have agreed to, so West advertising is OK. If Player’s still sponsored Williams, they’d be OK too.

The relevant agreement limits the US companies to sponsoring 2 racing series. NASCAR and CART are much more valuable advertising properties to tobacco companies, so they get the tobacco ads (NASCAR probably couldn’t exist without them). F1 and IRL are SOL in the USA.

I do like Jordan not only painting out the Benson & Hedges name, but replacing it with Buzzin d’ Hornets, though.

4

Hey, thanks, racinchikki! That helps a lot.

I’d forgotten about the big settlement in '98, and assumed that the “ban” was some national legislation. Like you point out, it’s an important difference.

I found the full text of the Master Settlement Agreement here. It’s a long and tedious read, but it does contain a spelled-out list of just who it applies to.

Basically, the Original Participating Manufacturers are listed in II(hh) to be:[ul][li]Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation (KOOL and Lucky Strike)[]Lorillard Tobacco Company (can’t find a list of their brands)[]Philip Morris Inc. (huge list of brands including Marlboro, Benson & Hedges, and Players)[*]R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (Winston, Camel and Salem among many others)[/ul]Mild Seven is produced by JT International, formed in 1999 when “Japan Tobacco Inc. bought RJR International, the non-US tobacco operations of RJR Nabisco Inc.” cite.[/li]
This may explain things. That “one brand name sponsorship per company” (cite) thing seems to be what does it. Brown & Williamson sponsor Team KOOL Green in CART, so they can’t use Lucky Strike in F1. Marlboro sponsors Team Penske in CART, and so Ferrari in F1 (and Penske’s IRL entries) can’t use it, and nor can Jordan F1 use B&H. I’m guessing that since RJR sold its international stuff after the 1998 agreement, some terminology within it prohibits JTI from using Mild Seven, since it’s really (sort of) at part of RJR.

ElvisL1ves, thanks. I’m still a little confused on Players, though, since Philip Morris USA claims it as one of its brands. Or are Players and Player’s different brands entirely? ::shudder::

Regardless, it’s now quite clear to me why West can advertise at Indy. :slight_smile:

5

Something that may or may not be relevant: Ferrari removed all advertising from their car for the Italy race two weeks ago, out of respect for the victims of the Sept 11 attacks. They also painted the noses of their cars black.

6

brad_d, Player’s is not an advertised brand on F1 cars anymore, so it doesn’t matter. Williams’ sponsor became Veltins (a Dutch brand, I think) in 1998, and now it’s Compaq Computers.

I noticed on the broadcast of the qualifying today that Jordan changed the Benson & Hedges name on their cars (while keeping the colors and font) for the USGP to “Bitten Heroes”, not the usual “Buzzin d’ Hornets” dodge.

Mild Seven is the sponsoring brand for the Benetton team, whose cars are a blank blue this weekend, so they would seem to be covered too.

manduck, that was indeed a nice gesture by Philip Morris on the Ferrari cars at Monza, taking the Marlboro name off even when they didn’t have to. Schumacher blamed some preoccupation with the attack for his blah performance there, anyway, and talked about not coming to Indy at all. Ferrari would have done whatever their primary sponsor/billpayer asked, of course.

Anyway, the increase in the number of countries that ban tobacco advertising outright is pushing them out of auto racing entirely, outside the US. It probably also has something to do with F1’s regular threats to cut back on European races and add more in Asia, where no real restrictions exist.