The boys and girls of the '90s woke up on weekend mornings to see Nubeluz and in front of the screen they sang
“Daddy, stop smoking”
.
But in the afternoon they took the replica of
Ayrton Senna
's McLaren Formula 1 car and played races with
the
little car
painted like a pack of Marlboro cigarettes
.
At the beginning of 1990,
18 of the 26 drivers on the grid had Marlboro as a sponsor
and the tobacco companies had been in the premier class of motorsport for more than two decades.
"This is an ideal sport: it's glamorous and it's seen all over the world.
It's a macho sport
. And on top of that, it gives us visibility. It seems to be made to sell cigarettes
," justified one of the most renowned journalists in the paddock at the time, Barrie Gill .
But the new millennium brought awareness:
the legends “Smoking Kills” appeared on cigarette boxes
.
In Europe, in addition, anti-tobacco laws have
prohibited advertising in Formula 1 cars since August 1, 2005
.
"It will save lives and reduce the number of Europeans suffering from smoking-related diseases
," explained the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Markos Kyprianou.
The multimillion-dollar budgets of the teams needed the tobacco companies and so new destinations were sought, far from the prohibitions, and advertising was covered in those where they were not allowed.
Until in 2007 the FIA resolved that it was prohibited to plot cars with the names of cigarette brands
.
That did not stop teams as important as
Ferrari and McLaren from trying to keep their main sponsors, Philip Morris and British American Tobacco
(marketer of brands such as Lucky Strike and Camel), respectively.
But why put money if their names are no longer on the cars?
Very simple:
more than 45% of F1 fans are under 35 years of age, the most desired market for cigarette consumption
.
From F1 cars to rolling cigarette packs
On October 22, 1967, in Mexico, Jim Clark won in his Lotus the last Grand Prix of a season dominated by Brabham's 1-2 with champion Denny Hulme and runner-up Jack Brabham.
Soon after,
Imperial Tobacco
approached Colin Chapman with a proposal:
to drop the
British racing green
color of their cars to decorate them in red and gold like the Gold Leaf cigarette box
.
The classic British racing green color of Lotus.
Few believed that he could give in, but the economic offer was so tempting that the first race of 1968, in South Africa and won by Jim Clark, was the last of Lotus in F1 with his old green color before his car appeared in plots in Spain. like a pack of cigarettes.
It was in Jarama, a month after Clark's death, dominated by the other team driver and that year's champion, Graham Hill.
On the red and gold spoiler of it the inscription
Gold Leaf
was first seen .
Until then,
the main sponsors of the F1 teams were related to motorsport: they were brands of tires, oils or fuels.
But advertising and marketing generated such a phenomenon that Lotus only kicked off a sponsorship that would become synonymous with success, with the pilots transformed into the reflection of masculinity for that time, and that the giant exploded a few years later. Phillip Morris.
Nigel Mansell's Lotus in 1984, advertising John Player & Sons, a Nottingham-based tobacco and cigarette manufacturer.
While the TV left the black and white to show the colors,
Bruce McLaren chose the orange so that his cars would stay with the attention of the viewers
.
But that color left him when in 1974 he made a deal with Marlboro.
The English team left that strident orange -which it recovered in 2018 at the request of its fans- to dye itself white and red like the packages of the most popular cigarettes in the world.
Its impact was such that
for more than 20 years its cars and its drivers -among the most successful in history-, such as Emerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, were linked to those colors
.
The French also made their alliance.
In 1976, the Ligier team - later sold to Alain Prost - agreed with the tobacco company Seita to paint their single-seaters with
French blue and the white of Gitanes cigarettes
.
The 80's marked a new boom.
Marlboro did not care that the McLaren cars were confused with those of Alfa Romeo
when it began to sponsor them, although the sponsorship did not extend beyond 1985, when the Italians left Formula - they only continued for a while longer as engine suppliers. until his return, more than 30 years later, in 2019.
The Lotus Honda 99T used by Senna during a show in São Paulo.
Photo AFP PHOTO_Mauricio Lima
Lotus agreed with Camel and changed the color of his car to yellow, which for many
gave him bad luck since then he began to falter until he disappeared from F1 in 1994.
Benetton, between 1991 and 1993, also received money from cigarettes represented by a camel in their box;
while
at Williams the dromedary decorated the cars of champions Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost
in the 1992 and 1993 seasons, respectively.
In the next couple of years, the English team traded Camels for Rothmans.
The British Nigel Mansell with the Williams from Rothmans advertising.
AFP photo
The business mutated but did not disappear: the cases of McLaren and Ferrari
Europe's decision to intervene in the tobacco business and Formula 1 was firm in the new millennium, but
the teams found a way to keep the smoke that had filled them with dollars
to make faster cars.
The link remained hidden for a decade (or less) until a few years ago when both Ferrari and McLaren whitewashed their alliances.
The Italians were closely linked with Philip Morris International (PMI)
;
It is only enough to mention Louis Carey Camilleri, who on December 10, 2020 met the positions he held as CEO of Ferrari and President of PMI.
While cigarettes from the world's largest tobacco company didn't make it back to chassis,
Mission Winnow, a covert brand of PMI that sells nothing, did
.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Mission Winnow (@missionwinnow)
"Mission Winnow is a change laboratory focused on reframing conversations, generating open debates, connecting people and supporting the realization of innovative ideas
," says the Mission Winnow website, whose logo is on the wings of Ferraris.
"PMI is a company of more than 70,000 people that has learned from the past and is fully committed to the evolution of our business and
the radical transformation of our industry through scientific and technological innovation,
"
the site adds without further details.
McLaren was more explicit in its association with British American Tobacco (BAT), although the legend on its cars says
“A Better Tomorrow”
, which with a simple game of acronyms is very similar to BAT
.
Although
"A Better Tomorrow"
is presented on its website as an "evolved corporate strategy" whose purpose is "to build a better tomorrow, by reducing the impact on health by offering a greater variety of pleasant and less risky products",
in 2019 they confirmed that they are "partners of one of the most famous names in Formula 1"
.
“Our multi-year partnership provides us with truly global marketing and innovation platforms to help accelerate our journey with our New Category products, focused on creating A Better Tomorrow for our consumers, shareholders, society and employees,” explain about
their new “product portfolio”: VUSE vapers and VELO nicotine pouches
.
VUSE, BAT's vape brand on the side of Lando Norris' McLaren at the last Saudi Arabian GP.
Photo ANDREJ ISAKOVIC / AFP
Despite the existing ban, the tobacco giants remained involved in F1,
spending more than $100 million in sponsorships of Ferrari and McLaren in 2021 alone
, according to a report by STOP, an international tobacco industry watchdog organization. .
“
F1 is complicit in millions of deaths every year
by allowing tobacco companies to perpetuate an epidemic through their media presence,”
said Phil Chamberlain, STOP partner.
“Sports has yet to shake off the addiction to Big Tobacco money and this report indicates that it is the new generation of young race fans around the world who could pay the price,”
he stressed.
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