Oliver White
Philip Morris, the owners of the Marlboro cigarette brand have apparently come up with a contingency plan in case their subliminal branding on the Ferrari car is deemed illegal, Paddock Talk have reported.
With tobacco being outlawed, a lot of teams have spent the last couple of years finding other sponsors to fund their teams, with Renault moving away from Mild Seven, and BAT pulling out of Honda entirely. But Philip Morris have recently extended their contract with Ferrari until 2011, going against the trend and insisting that their idea of subtly colouring the car without logos is acceptable.
However, should the powers that be decide this is wrong, Philip Morris have lined up sponsorship of some of their other non-tobacco companies. And this is the bit I never realised until today: Altria Group – Philip Morris’ parent company – do not just own Marlboro, they also own Maxwell House coffee, Oreo cookies and food brand Kraft. Philip Morris also sub-contract out much of the remaining space on the Ferrari to other companies such as Shell and Alice.
Image courtesy of Kraft Foods.
Remind me of when such a law was passed in India , ITC group which earlier advertised cigarettes , started advertising their luxury hotels. But the move didnt last long as not much difference in profits was seen and they backed out. wonder if the same would happen to phillip Morris.
“With tobacco being outlawed” – I think that is my biggest typo/error so far! Hehe! It is meant to read:
“With tobacco sponsorship in F1 now outlawed…”
i remeber Camel putting Camel merchandise on their cars,lighters,shoes,clothing etc,way back in the eightees.
they got round the sigarette ban,by putting inc. in tiny letters under the big Camel letters.
Ah, very clever. By the way, this site is sponsored by Cuts’emUp Abattoirs, Inc. (That’s a joke, by the way. BlogF1 is ‘sponsored’ by love and no animals were harmed in the making of it.)
[…] Coffee and cigarettes for Ferrari – What will happen if Philip Morris decide to promote something other than Marlboro on the Ferraris? Sadly GrandPrix.com poured cold water on the idea of a Toblerone Ferrari… […]