Will Ferrari End Its Addiction to Tobacco Sponsorship?

Car racing used to be a major recipient of tobacco marketing dollars, a perfect venue for repetitive branding to a captive and youthful audience. However, since the overt branding of cars has been banned, almost all tobacco sponsors have pulled out. But not Philip Morris International. In fact, they're about to extend a controversial deal with Ferrari, which it has been a title sponsor of since 1997.

Ferrari claims that the sponsorship, which is reportedly for $1 billion over ten years, doesn't break any international laws. And in some ways that's true. They can't plaster the Marlboro brand over their cars or drivers' outfits like they used to. Tobacco sponsorship has been banned in the European Union since 2005; the Food and Drug Administration officially banned smokeless tobacco and cigarette sponsorships in sporting events last year.

But the tobacco industry is as conniving as ever. Just last year, Ferrari came under fire for using a black, red and white Marlboro-inspired barcode on its cars, which was allegedly part of a subliminal marketing campaign designed to circumvent the international ban on tobacco advertising.

"What Marlboro has done is create a huge number of what I call 'smashable components' to their brand. They are sending indirect, subconscious signals that are talking to the brain without explicitly telling it we are being sold to … just by showing me a red Ferrari car," Martin Lindstrom, a neuro-marketing consultant and author of "Buyology," told the Wall Street Journal last year.

After the media and health campaigners called out the barcode's connotations, Ferrari dropped the logo from its cars.

Although the barcode may be gone, there are other ways in which Philip Morris uses can use its partnership with Ferrari, the only team in Formula One that continues to have a commercial sponsorship from a tobacco company. The Italian team's official name is Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. With one of the largest sponsorships in Formula One, Philip Morris reserves the right to veto other sponsors and also gets the company membership into Formula One's exclusive Paddock Club, which caters to corporate hospitality and allows companies to brand their suites.

The tobacco industry isn't paying Ferrari a billion dollars for nothing. They're using the venue to promote their name and brand and to target youth and young adults at racing competitions. Smoking is still the number one preventable cause of death in the world, and advertising helps make that so. Tell Ferrari -- the only team that continues to take tobacco money -- to end it's deadly addiction to Marlboro money.

Photo credit: Mypoorbrain