Tobacco ads have consistently proven to be the most clever, crafty and colorful of the bunch.
They have to be. It’s getting harder and harder for tobacco companies to advertise their products due to ever-increasing bans and restrictions.
What does this mean for tobacco ads?
They have to constantly adapt and evolve. It means they have to move to new ad mediums or find new ways to get around restrictions and bans in their preferred ad media.
I don’t condone smoking, but I find the evolution of its advertising history to be better than fiction.
They are constantly cooking up new ways to get around all the new anti-smoking legislation and institutional ad bans.
Here is a brief timeline of tobacco ad restrictions:
1971: Cigarette ads banned from television and radio.
1986: Smokeless tobacco banned from radio.
1998: Cigarette ads banned from being formatted as cartoons.
1999: Tobacco ads banned from billboards.
2005: European Union (EU) bans tobacco advertising in newspapers, magazines, radio and on the Internet.
2006: EU bans tobacco sponsorship of international sporting events (including auto racing).
You can see why tobacco ads have become so clever, tricky and colorful. They are constantly having to evolve and try new mediums (or find sneaky ways around bans in their preferred ad medium).
I’m surprised I haven’t seen more tobacco ads in my daily web surfing. You’d think that cigarette companies would be fully embracing their final advertising frontier.
On second thought, I guess their absence from the Internet makes sense. They like to stick to what works. :)
Here are some choice examples of tobacco companies sneaking around advertising bans:
1) Ferrari’s F1 Marlboro Sponsorship
In 1996, Ferrari picked up a driver by the name of Michael Shumacher. They went on to win five championships together.
In 1996, Ferrari also changed their F1 car color from Ferrari red to a more Marlboro red (the first of many subliminal messages).
In 2006, F1 bans tobacco sponsorship in accordance with the EU sporting event ban.
In 2006, Ferrari takes the Marlboro name off car but leaves plenty of subliminal advertising.
Subliminal ads like Marlboro bar codes on the wings and nose, more exact Marlboro red color and Ferrari Racing Edition cigarette packaging.
Subliminal bar codes.
Ferrari F1 cigarette packaging
2) Jordan’s Benson & Hedges Sponsorship
I remember this one very well because my dad is a huge Formula 1 racing fan.
Benson & Hedges sponsored the Jordan GP team from 1996 to 2005. During that time, whenever Jordan came across a cigarette ban they would just switch the name and logo to something very similar to Benson & Hedges.
Here are some good ones:
Bitten Hisses (when the Jordan mascot was a hissing snake)
Bitten Heroes (in honor of 9/11)
Be On Edge (Benson & Hedges)
And, the most popular one…
Buzzin Hornets (they even started selling tons of merchandise for this one)
Buzzin Hornet chariot
3) Camel/Rolling Stone Magazine Cartoon Fiasco
This one just happened in November 2007. I’m sure most of you already read about it.
In short, here’s what happened: Rolling Stone’s November 15 issue had a magazine-designed illustration insert for a ton of indie rock bands. Check it out:
Indie Rock Universe
As you can see, the illustration was chock full with cartoons drawings, animals and indie bands. Nothing wrong with that.
Here’s the kicker: the Indie Rock Universe insert was enclosed with another insert from Camel titled “The Farm” claiming to support and promote independent record labels. The Camel insert (below) also had cartoon drawings and animals.
Camel’s The Farm
Scans of all the pages can be found here and The Daily Farm has details on lawsuits some of the indie bands in the RS insert have brought forward.
