Ferrari F1 barcode a ‘smokescreen for cigarette adverts’

I'm not even going to say anything about these so called leading doctors, it would be way to easy.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/formula_1/article7111124.ece

Leading doctors are demanding an immediate government inquiry into “subliminal” tobacco advertising on Ferrari’s Formula One cars, and the company’s $1 billion relationship with the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, The Times has learnt.

The red, white and black bar code emblazoned on Ferrari’s racing cars and its drivers’ overalls is designed to remind viewers of a packet of Marlboro cigarettes, it is claimed. Under EU legislation it is an offence for a tobacco company to sponsor sporting events.

Yesterday a spokesman for the European Public Health Commissioner said he thought that Marlboro’s approach constituted potential subliminal marketing. He urged the Spanish and British governments to ascertain whether the world’s second-biggest tobacco company might be in breach of the law.

Formula One teams are due to fly into Spain for the European leg of the season which begins in ten days’ time. The British Grand Prix is on July 11.
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Don Elgie, chief executive of Creston, which owns the advertising agency DLKW, said he thought that the bar code was subliminal advertising — where a brand is so recognisable that consumers can be reminded of a product without actually seeing it.

John Britton, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and director of its tobacco advisory group, said: “The bar code looks like the bottom half of a packet of Marlboro cigarettes. I was stunned when I saw it. This is pushing at the limits. If you look at how the bar code has evolved over the last four years, it looks like creeping branding.”

Gerard Hastings, director of the Centre for Tobacco Control Research, said: “I think this is advertising. Why a bar code? What is their explanation?”

Frank Dobson, who was Health Secretary between 1997 and 1999, also called for an inquiry. Mr Dobson, now a backbench Labour MP, said: “The tobacco firms were working out years ago how they could advertise if there was a ban on tobacco advertising.”

Spokesmen for Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, and the Department of Health refused to comment. A spokesperson for the BBC, which has a contract to broadcast Formula One, said: “We are confident that Formula One, and as a result our coverage of Formula One, is fully compliant with regulations.”

In September 2005 Philip Morris, the maker of Marlboro, extended its financial backing for the Ferrari team until 2011, despite the ban on cigarette branding on cars racing in the European Union. The contract is understood to be worth $1 billion over ten years and Philip Morris said Ferraris would not carry Marlboro branding where there was a ban.

A spokesman for the Italian car maker said: “The bar code is part of the livery of the car, it is not part of a subliminal advertising campaign.”

Asked about the Philip Morris contract he said: “$100 million [a year] is not a correct figure. We do not disclose the figure — the figure you mention, it is lower.”

Ferrari is the only Formula One team with a tobacco brand in its formal title, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. Its logo also has the bar code and its drivers, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, wear overalls bearing the bar code next to the Ferrari logo on each arm.

Philip Morris said: “We are confident that our relationship with Ferrari does not violate the UK 2002 Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act. The Formula One Grand Prix in the UK does not involve any race cars, team apparel, equipment or track signage carrying tobacco product branding. The same is true for all other Formula One races across the world.”

 

Any good defense lawyer could shred the main argument in this assertion:

1) Take a reasonably large number of people selected at random.
2) Put the people in a room with a Ferrari F1 car with the barcode logo.
3) don't tell the people anything about the experiment
4) after an hour of allowing them to look at any accessible detail on the car remove the people one at a time
5) in another room, one at a time, put 10 bar codes in front of the person of the moment and ask which of these bar codes is the same as the one on the F1 car
6) compile the statistics and show no correlation* between the barcode on the car and the barcode in the questionaire.

(*) assuming there is actually no correlation

 

What a load of bollox Like that makes a difference..assuming no one has any self control.
Yeh and Renaults livery is promoting angry wasps, however the self-righteous governments take no tax from wasps..

 

I'm tired of these anti-smoking people trying to stop this. Seriously, who the hell decides to smoke after seeing one those? I don't smoke at all...that was because in middle school the anti-smoking people brought two sets of pig lungs--one pig that was forced to breathe smoke for a few years and a normal pair. Pretty obvious that it was a bad idea to smoke when they started to fill the lungs with air.

My favorite sports cars/boats/bikes have always been the tobacco sponsored ones anyway...

McLaren F1 GTR - Davidoff (Take a DAY OFF...the loop hole they used)
Porsche and Williams F1 - Rothmans
BAR Honda - Lucky Strike / 555
Ferrari - Marlboro (barcode loop hole)
Jordan F1 - Benson & Hedges (Be On Edge loop hole)
Ulimited hydroplane - Smokin' Joes yellow and purple
Honda and Yamaha race bikes - Smokin' Joes

^^They all look cool, but in no way have made me want to smoke. Without the cigarette companies, there wouldn't be much money for the sports to spend like they do...

Isn't there an economic study showing how cigarettes are good for the US govt? Not only does it inc tax revenue, but also decreases the cost burden on social security and medicare by reducing life expectancy. If people want to let them smoke, let them...I really don't care.

 

I don't know about anyone else but when I was a kid seeing the Joe Camel Cartoon add always made me want to puff on a Cig....

j/k of course

 

Nothing beats the JPS.
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Boredom!

 

Correct.

I am constantly amazed by politicians and regulators who seem to know no end to their meddlesome ways and interfering in the daily lives of people. If we took all the time and resources that are wasted on crap such as this and put them into productive use, we could cure diseases, hydrate the deserts, feed billions.

Instead, some pointy headed bureaucrats have us all craving cigarettes and dying because we see a bar code.

What a joke.

 

My question is this, who are these LEADING DOCTORS? that are DEMANDING the government to inquiry about the advertising practices between 2 company's that have absolutely nothing to do with health care.

 

Way to go, docs. Welcome to 5 years ago!

 

It is much worse than. Social democratic totalitarianism.

 

I want a cigarette.

 

I hate smoking. I never smoked. My father smoked and it aided in his death.

I don't mind cigarrette advertising on cars. I don't drink beer but I could care less if Bud advertises on some car. As long as it's a legal substance that you can choose to indulge or not to indulge, I don't see the problem with promoting a brand.

Now, I do have a problem with promoting SMOKING. To me, that's a TV commercial or a print ad glorfying the idea of smoking. That promotes smoking. But, putting a logo on someone's car? That's not promoting smoking. It's promoting smokers to buy THEIR brand. It's a big difference.

 

I find it funny that Ferrari would deny that the barcode logo was designed in reference to Marlboro. Funnier still though as stated before, is that it comes 5 YEARS after they adopted it. I never particularly minded Tobacco advertising in motor sports, but when I was a kid, we all chewed on "Pall Mall" bubblegum in the schoolyard (after puffing away on a cigarette-shaped stick of gum, blowing plumes of powdered sugar) -- these companies knew/know how to market their product.

 

When I see that barcode it makes me want to play the piano...

 

LOL!! Me too... I ALWAYS see a piano keyboard - never crossed my mind that I'm
supposed to be wanting a Marlboro on race day!! Makes me crave Mozart

Jedi

 

Amen!
I dont get it, i dont know the numbers, but it seems to me that there are way more people in the USA than in those countries, and we dont have those crazy laws?

I never got the gist of no tobacco in F-1.... people are going to smoke no matter what you do ... so let the tobacco guys fund my sport!!!!

 

+ 1

Hollywood movies promote smoking when cool actors light up. That is actually habit forming.

Billboards and tobacco advertising on F1 cars is not habit forming, but there to raise brand awareness: If you're already a smoker you are more likely to pick a Marlboro cigarette after watching their ads.

Big difference.

But nobody goes after the entertainment industry. Not that I want them to, but it is hypocritical to only go after the brand awareness.

PS: I proudly wear big Marlboro stickers on my racing suits and helmets. Just to annoy the purist doctors (I don't smoke).

 

I think society has graduated from "button sorting" to just moving the buttons around a bit.

When we said, "Get a life", we meant "one of your own", not that you should try to take away someone else's.

 

Who comes up with this crap??

 

lawyers. next they'll be saying the red and white livery is representitive of the packaging.

 

The only smokes for me are 2-4 fine cigars a month in good company and I never smoked cigarettes. But the memory of Keke putting out a cigarette, jumping in the cockpit and setting an all time fastest qualifying lap in a Williams has the kind of magic to me that doesn't naturally exist anymore <sigh>


PS. Good to read that this forum is full of dinosaurs like me.

 

smoke this
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I don't know if it's in anyway related to this crap - Tamiya just released their 1/20th kit of the F60 and it doesn't even have the barcode! - The engine cover is simply solid red! I'm pretty sure they ran the barcode at every race last year, and fortunately there are third party suppliers, but WTF?

Cheers,
Ian

 

CADE

I thank you, good people: there shall be no money;
all shall eat and drink on my score; and I will
apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree
like brothers and worship me their lord.

DICK
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.