eBusiness Weekly
Tobacco giants have spent billions on advertising with Formula One teams over the years, and are again swelling their spending despite a supposed ban, industry monitors said Wednesday.
In a fresh report entitled “Driving Addiction: F1 and Tobacco Advertising”, F1 industry monitor Formula Money and tobacco industry watchdog STOP pointed to data indicating cigarette-makers were aggressively stepping up spending.
Since F1 was established 70 years ago, its teams and events have sold $4,4 billion in advertising and sponsorship to tobacco companies, the report said.
After years of declining sponsorship spending, brought on by growing awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco products, national bans and a supposed ban within F1, the report said that spending last year reached “a staggering $100 million”, putting it back at levels not seen since 2011.
The spending, by tobacco giants Philip Morris and British American Tobacco on the F1 Ferrari and McLaren teams, is this year expected to rise to $115 million, it said.
The findings prompted concern from the World Health Organisation, with health promotion chief Ruediger Krech insisting in a statement that “we must not go backwards in the fight against tobacco.”
Harm for generations
“Promoting these products attracts new tobacco users, especially among young people, causing harm for generations to come.”
The WHO estimates that tobacco use kills more than seven million people each year.
PMI and BAT last year formed partnerships with their scientific research subsidiaries and Formula 1 teams Ferrari and McLaren, more than a decade after cigarette advertising was all but banned from the sport.
The tobacco companies are no longer advertising for their traditional cigarette brands, but do appear to be pushing new, so-called ‘smoke-free’ heated tobacco products, although they do not mention them by name.
The International Automobile Federation (FIA), Formula 1’s ruling body, has since 2006 been opposed to any advertising or sponsoring of cigarettes or tobacco.
Wednesday’s report lamented that FIA’s previous public commitment to fully ban tobacco sponsorship had been watered down to a mere recommendation in 2003.
“The FIA claims that it wants to promote a net positive contribution to society. That’s not possible while it is still linked to an industry that causes such harm” Mary Assunta of STOP said in the statement.
Contacted by AFP, FIA insisted in an email that it “remains firmly opposed to tobacco advertising and continues to stand by its 2003 recommendations.”
However, it said, “we are not in a position to interfere with the private commercial arrangements between the teams and their sponsors.” — AFP.
