Tobacco/Cigarette Sponsorship In Motorsport

[Statto]

As Tobacco/Cigarette Sponsorship is being/has been banned from motorsport

What are your views on this. Was it a good thing for the sport? and was it/is it necessary for the sport? Or are you/were you against the influx of companies looking to advertise in the sport.

Also not just Tobacco/Cigarette Sponsorship but are you swayed by other companies advertising in the sport? Would you go and buy a product because you saw the company name on the side of the car?

Interested to hear your views

Ben

[Mark]

Overall I think it has been good for the sport. Maybe in the 1980's it was acceptable for cars to be sponsored by tobacco companies but recently there has been a massive shift in opinion against smoking and F1 does well not to be associated with it.

Many thought removing the tobacco sponsorship would result in the death of F1, but other sponsors have been found.

[V12]

I am a smoker. However during the tobacco sponsorship "boom" in F1, I didn't (was a bit young to be honest, but there were people my age in school who did smoke). I didn't really start till I was in Uni and stuff.

I smoke Marlboros - why? Well because of their extensive motorsport sponsorship, it wasn't a conscious choice, they were just the most well known to me.

So in a nutshell, going from personal experience anyway, tobacco sponsorship didn't make me want to start smoking. But when I did, it DID influence what brand I went with.

As far as my views on banning it goes? Well to be honest I think it's quite sad and another example of the nanny state that this world currently is. There are many reasons people start smoking: peer pressure, experimentation, etc. But I'm pretty sure some stickers slapped on the side of a racing car isn't one of them.

And of course it had that unfortunate side-effect of making the sport even MORE reliant on manufacturer cash, leading to the state we're currently in.

Either ban cigarettes altogether, or allow them to be advertised, anything else is just hypocritical

[leopard]

Overall I think it has been good for the sport. Maybe in the 1980's it was acceptable for cars to be sponsored by tobacco companies but recently there has been a massive shift in opinion against smoking and F1 does well not to be associated with it.

Many thought removing the tobacco sponsorship would result in the death of F1, but other sponsors have been found.

Agree, I think the same that the presence of tobacco in the sport and prohibition on tobacco advertising controversy is perceived differently.
Like any other products advertisement, the first thing they want to achieve from sponsoring F1 or to put their product name on car is brand awareness.

There is not any special treatment for tobacco, it is just like any other product, they shower their money off for the team, whenever the product advertisement is ethically unacceptable, teams have to find different partners.

The question whether or not we buy product because being written on car, back to the brand awareness reasoning, we will not buy product we doesn't know.

[Jag_Warrior]

I don't agree with banning the advertising of legal products. If it's down to morals, ethics and health concerns, why are liquor, beer and fast food companies allowed as sponsors?

[AndyL]

Tobacco sponsorship was responsible for some of the smartest car liveries.

[christophulus]

I've never smoked but that's through my own choice, not because of any advertising ban. But right or wrong, I don't think motorsport had any other option but to comply once the EU had decided to ban tobacco advertising. It doesn't seem to have hurt any of the teams though, costs had to come down sooner or later and new sponsors were easy enough to find a few years back.

Have I ever bought something advertised on the cars? Nope. Although by chance, my bank is RBS, my shaver is Philips and my printer is HP. And not because they're Williams' backers

[harvick#1]

I don't agree with banning the advertising of legal products. If it's down to morals, ethics and health concerns, why are liquor, beer and fast food companies allowed as sponsors?

+1 I've never understood that one neither. with everyone saying smoking gives you cancer, well what doesn't, the sun gives you skin cancer.

fast food joints destroy your body (watch Supersize Me)

liquor and beer can kill you in one night by overdose or driving.


yet smoking is always targeted as evil, I don't smoke and choose not to, I've done it before and don't care to ever again. but the product is legal, so why the big deal of a sponsorship

[BDunnell]

Overall, I don't think it has harmed F1, and I am in favour of banning tobacco advertising across the board, so its effects haven't been adverse in the slightest. Whether it has had the slightest effect in terms of stopping anyone from smoking, no-one surely has any idea.

[D-Type]

Speaking as an ex-smoker, I agree with V12 - sponsorship didn't make me smoke or smoke more but it did affect my choice of brand. I definitely chose to smoke Gold Leaf for a while. Later when I switched to a lower tar cigarette I naturally gravitated towards Silk Cut.