Ferrari in spotlight over 'subliminal tobacco ads'

Utter bollocks news story of the day.

Doctors have urged governments to launch an enquiry into alleged 'subliminal' tobacco advertising on Ferrari Formula One cars, according to The Times.

t is claimed the red, white and black bar code on Ferrari cars and overalls is intended to remind viewers of Marlboro cigarettes branding.

EU law bans tobacco sponsorship at sporting events, and the first European round of the 2010 F1 season takes place in Spain next weekend.

A spokesman for the European Public Health Commissioner he suspected subliminal marketing by Marlboro, who have a $1 billion (£650m) partnership with Ferrari, and asked the British and Spanish governments to investigate.

Subliminal advertising is a technique whereby consumers are reminded of a product without actually seeing it, and an expert said the Ferrari bar code had come increasingly to resemble a Marlboro packet.

John Britton, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and director of its tobacco advisory group, told The Times: “The bar code looks like the bottom half of a packet of Marlboro cigarettes. I was stunned when I saw it. This is pushing at the limits. If you look at how the bar code has evolved over the last four years, it looks like creeping branding.”

Gerard Hastings, director of the Centre for Tobacco Control Research, added: “I think this is advertising. Why a bar code? What is their explanation?”

A spokesperson for the BBC, which broadcasts Formula One, said: “We are confident that Formula One, and as a result our coverage of Formula One, is fully compliant with regulations.”

A Ferrari spokesman said: “The bar code is part of the livery of the car, it is not part of a subliminal advertising campaign.”

Philip Morris, whose financial backing of Ferrari is in place until the end of next season, said: “We are confident that our relationship with Ferrari does not violate the UK 2002 Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act.

"The Formula One Grand Prix in the UK does not involve any race cars, team apparel, equipment or track signage carrying tobacco product branding. The same is true for all other Formula One races across the world.” Eurosport

farrari fags

And there was me thinking red, black and white was synonynous with fascism!

Who F'ing cares...

Tis a bit typical how everyone else had to give up fag sponsorship but the Red Cars not only carry that livery, but still have a fag company as tbeir title sponsor. One set of regulations for Ferrari, one for everyone else.

I have a book in English about music censorship---this whole thing it reminds me of these crazy people who believed in subliminal backwards messages allegedly on records that allegedly made people kill themselves or do crazy things.

Thing is, if you'd never seen them in their Marlboro colours, you'd never think anything of these stripey bits. BUT anyone who did see them back in the days when fags were legal to advertise some places, will instantly recognise their livery as being the one which they adopted to stand-in for the Marlboro one in countries where they weren't allowed to run it.

Like I said....everyone else has to do without baccy money, why not those cheating cunts...I mean FFS they get 2x the prize money the other teamms get as it is.....it's written into the contract that binds all the teams to Bernie.

But cambo... its FERRARI yer talking about! I mean, they should be allowed more as they are by far the best team out there!

EdelBrock wrote: But cambo... its FERRARI yer talking about! I mean, they should be allowed more as they are by far the best team out there!

Ahhhhhh Schufosi logic, you wanna watch out for that :D

Ferrari are best, so they should get away with more. Or my favourite EVER............. Schu is the best driver ever ever ever.....but his car is th best ever ever ever too ROFLMAO.....I LOVE that. U can argue till your tits turn blue, and it'll never get through, like speaking to daleks...... "the ferrari PWNS all the other cars by 2 secs a lap" "but von cobblers is on pole by 1.8s, that makes him 2 tenths slower than the chap in 2nd" "Michael PWNS the other drivers by 2 secs a lap" "so, the car's .2 off the pace then?" "the ferrari is the work of almighty god and nobody can catch it" Etc

LOL

They do get their own way FAR too often. They do get away with FAR too much. They bully the sport, they have such an army of bleating,red draped loons (and true, diehard F1 fans who love ALL teams, but know that the Red Cars are a bit special, or can at least remember a time when they were), that were they to fuck off out of F1, a sizable proportion of the audience would go with them. So they literally say "pay us more per point than the others or we'll take our toys and fuck off to IRL" Even 30 years ago they were at this shite......Two manufacturers were running turbos in 82, Ferrari and Renault. The regulations were suppose to create an equivalency formula between the hugely powerful, but massively heavy turbos and the lighter, less powerful Ford DFV powered machines....what they actually did was force an insane minimum weight on the DFV cars making them totally useless. Leading to all the DFV cars bar a couple of scabs, boycotting Imola [1]. this was NOTHING to do with F1 being run by an Italian, heading a federation based in Paris.....nope. Nor will Ferrari continue to get their balls rubbed day in and day out [2]...now that their former team principle is running the whole fucking sport. Nope, No Suuureee.

[1] It also lead to some of the best cheating ever....lead in the fuel filler etc...you were allowed to top off all fluid reservoirs prior to post-session weigh in.....so in went 1 gallon of fuel with 5K lead beads in it. But the best ever, was "water cooled brakes".....you develope brakes, which alledgedly run V hot, and require cooling with water, the governing body reckon this is OK. So you fit your car with a 40 litre "brake cooling tank". When you roll out of the pits for Qually, you get down to T1, hit the brake, and 40L of water prolapses out of the car. You run your session 40Kg lighter, then pop back into the pits, top up the tank, and head off to the weighbridge. [2] Fave recent example.....Lewis hamilton: "I didn't let trulli through, he overtook me"....result....busted for lying to stewards, Ron Denis career in F1 over, basically a big pile of stink....but Schu:" I hit the wall, and lost all control, and certainly did not just park the car accross La Rascasse, fucking up everybody else's last lap and risking their lives and that of marshalls" (five mins after he parked the car accross La Rascasse, fucking up everybody else's last lap and risking their lives and that of marshalls)....result.....sent to the back of the grid (and that only after it looked like there would be several lynchings if nothing was done about him.)

Cambo, you way too easy... I thought my first post would be clear prrof that I was just winding you up.

EdelBrock wrote: Cambo, you way too easy... I thought my first post would be clear prrof that I was just winding you up.

That's not a rant at you, that's just what happens when I think too much about how they operate :D

This is just another example of multi-continental businesses behaving like spoilt brats. The trouble is, if we're ever going to do something effective against this, we're going to have to do it in a morally, legally, peacefully AND democratically way.

This means using our ballot papers in a more imaginative way, rather than just looking for the party who we hope will do the most for our hopes. Think what we could achieve if only enough of us all spoiled our ballot papers on May 6.

Sadly in britain, there is only one party with three different names.