Formula 1 guide is full of tobacco advertising

A guide with all there is to know about Formula 1 contains lots of historical images in which tobacco logos are prominently displayed. This is a form of surreptitious advertising that has recently been tackled in Australia. Europe should take this as an example.

By the web editors

In the Australian motorsport world, there has been a fuss about new rules from Motorsport Australia on tobacco advertising on racing cars. The new rules now also ban tobacco advertising on classic cars. Owners of the classic cars react disgruntled. “Cigarette advertising should no longer be publicly displayed on our cars,” says one to the website WhichCar. “That brings up an interesting point… Does that then extend to my jumper? It’s got the JPS logo on it … this looks kind of ridiculous.”

In Europe still a lot of ‘old’ tobacco sponsorship

Exceptions to advertising bans for such ‘old’ tobacco sponsorship are still a loophole in the law in Europe that prohibits tobacco advertising and sponsorship. YouTube is full of old footage of Formula 1, Netflix offers documentaries about F1 with historical footage, and motorsport publications include photos from the ‘good old days’. For example, ‘The Ultimate Guide to Grand Prix’, which has been available in the Netherlands since June, contains the Marlboro logo a total of 46 times in seven photos.

Motorsport Australia bans all tobacco use

In Australia, tobacco and e-cigarette advertising in all its forms has been banned since a change in the law in 2023. Before that, cigarette sponsorship was prohibited based on legislation from 1992, but certain exceptions applied to classic racing cars.

Motorsport Australia decided on 8 September that from now on classic cars must also be free of tobacco sponsorship. The association was responding to the decision at the end of August by a local streaming service not to broadcast a race with classic cars because of tobacco advertising on two cars in the race.

‘You can’t erase history’

One of the drivers then started a petition to exempt historic motorsport from the advertising rules. Since mid-September, 8,500 people have supported this. There is also protest from the trade association Heritage Touring Cars. A former director stated: ‘You can’t erase history’.

Grand Prix 101 Guide

That also seems to be the thought of the makers of ‘De ultieme gids voor Grand Prix’ (The Ultimate Guide to Grand Prix), a translation of ‘Grand Prix 101’ by British sportscaster Christian Hewgill. The guide is a publication of the British publishing group Welbeck, which is part of the international publishing house Hachette. In the UK it is sold for 25 pounds (29 euros). The Dutch translation of the guide is marketed in the Netherlands and Belgium by Vipmedia and is available for 9.95 euro in magazine shops.

16 photos with tobacco sponsorship

The book with ‘Everything you want to know about Formula 1’ contains 12 photos of historic moments in racing on a total of 224 pages, showing the logos of five different cigarette brands, one of which is no longer available. In addition, the guide shows four times modern cars from McLaren with the logo of British American Tobacco’s nicotine pouch brand Velo on it.

Spread with eight times tobacco logo

The number of photos seems to be not too bad on the total number of pages, but if you leaf through the guide, you will quickly notice that tobacco sponsorship is prominently present in it. In particular, the logo of Philip Morris’ most popular Marlboro brand dominates. The logo can be seen a total of 46 times. Among other things, it is featured eight times in a two-page photo (74/75) of a victorious Michael Schumacher, who drives his car, with the brand on it twice, past the grandstand where the brand name is also depicted very large six times.

Later in the book another spread (pages 106/107) of the same situation in another race with the logo again six times in the picture. The page before, a frenzied trio of Ferrari drivers are sprayed with champagne on the podium, with the tobacco logo on screen a total of eight times.

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F1 attracts young crowd

Formula 1 has been doing a lot in recent years to win over a very young audience, including by entering partnerships with Disney, Lego and Toy Story. A guide with information about the cars, the teams and the drivers, the circuits, the rules and the technology is of course popular with such a young audience. This inadvertently exposes this target group to the tobacco advertising that has just been removed from the circuit.

European Commission can tackle surreptitious advertising

Historical advertising thus still fulfils its promotional function and should therefore also be banned from all media in Europe. The argument that history cannot be erased, cannot be a reason to allow this surreptitious advertising. The European Commission can change this in the upcoming revision of the Tobacco Advertising Directive.

TabakNee asked author Christian Hewgill and Vipmedia for a reaction but did not receive any response.

Also read:
Formula 1 brings tobacco advertising to young children
Tobacco promotion during Formula 1 arouses outrage
PMI and BAT still make millions from Formula 1 racing