HOW CIGARETTE SPONSORSHIP CHANGED MOTORSPORTS FOREVER
Let me start by giving you a backstory.
In 1971 cigarette companies around the world were slowly being outlawed along with their sponsorship and marketing, but it took many years to completely remove the foot hold they had in sports. You still have some cigarette companies using loopholes in the system to promote themselves via vape companies and so on, but it’s nowhere near the same as it was twenty years ago.
These days you see RedBull, Rockstar & Monster Energy Drinks everywhere in motorsports, but what happened to all that cigarette sponsorship and do they still do it without us knowing? In this blog I’m going to talk to you about why I was intrigued by the way smoking companies worked in the motorsports industry and how they advertised themselves.
When I was growing up as a kid in the late 80’s and early 90’s I had no idea what Marlboro, Winston, West, John Player, Benson & Hedges, Peter Jones and Winfield were when watching Formula One, INDYCAR, NASCAR & Supercars on TV,until I was old enough to see people smoking those cigarette brands and start to make the connection.
It seemed to be everywhere. When you looked around the race track you just couldn’t stay away from it. Now I know energy drinks companies do it these days, but to me they don’t go to the efforts that cigarette companies did twenty to thirty years ago. The only one that comes close in the energy drinks companies that replicates that type of aggressive marketing plan is Monster Energy, which is owned by Coca-Cola, but this blog isn't about energy drinks it's about cigarette companies and its involvement in motor racing sponsorship.
Also note, these are some of my opinions. I will be sharing facts, however in some areas I am just discussing what I have observed in motorsports on a personal level.
V8 SUPERCARS - GIBSON MOTORSPORT VS. GLENN SETON RACING
In 1989, title sponsor Philip Morris, was dissatisfied at being given secondary status behind the Nissan automotive company for their signage on the dominant “Godzilla” Skylines throughout 1988, so the Philip Morris brand decided to move with Glenn Seton who had left to form his own race team, Glenn Seton Racing.
The Gibson Motorsport team of Mark Skaife and Jim Richards had big money coming in from the Winfield cigarette giant. Everything they had was painted in red and yellow, but at the same time so did his arch rival, Glenn Seton Racing, who had the mighty blue and yellow of the Peter Jackson cigarette branding.The team consisted of Glenn Seton and former Formula One Champion Alan Jones in 1992 where the real rivalry began between the two race teams.
It made total sense from a marketing point of view for both those cigarette brands to out advertise themselves in the V8 Supercars arena. One brand was red for Holden and the other was blue for Ford, both teams had champion drivers in Mark Skaife and Jim Richards whilst the other had Glenn Seton and Alan Jones. A lot of Aussie motorsports fans still wear those classic cigarette branded merchandise to motorsports events these days.
Benson and Hedges had also gotten involved in the sport between 1988-1994, with Tony Longhurst Racing. Still to this day, a lot of fans remember the yellow and red Holden VP and BMW that raced amongst the field from that generation of cars.
So many cigarette brands were promoted back in those days and many of those teams and events are still remembered. The Winfield Triple Challenge at Eastern Creek Raceway was my first ever Supercars race I watched on TV as a youngster in 1994. I remember vividly that day watching the arch-rivals, GSR/Peter Jackson, team of Glenn Seton and Alan Jones, who dominated the Winfield Gibson Motorsport of Mark Skaife and Jim Richards that weekend. It was an awesome spectacle to watch. It truly was between Holden and Ford that day, whilst two cigarette companies headlined the race meeting. The Winfield Triple Challenge at Eastern Creek Raceway also had Super Bikes and Drag Racing all in the same complex that weekend.
Recently in 2021, Supercars reintroduced the Triple Challenge at Darwin’s Hidden Valley Raceway when it featured an up to date roster of motorsport stars competing in the top end with Supercars headlining the show alongside the Australian Superbikes and Drag Racing Series, yes it was cool to see it back on the schedule but the times have changed, all though those memories as a kid at Eastern Creek haven't.
I absolutely miss those days in the history of the Supercars Championship, those events like the Winfield Triple Challenge really were something else! Nowadays it's like watching paint dry.
FORMULA ONE - THOSE ICONIC PAINT SCHEMES & RACE TEAMS
Back in 2004, Red Bull purchased Jaguar Racing and then Minardi in 2005, which then later turned into Red Bull Racing and Alpha Touri.
Thinking back, have any cigarette brands bought out race teams similar to energy drink giant Red Bull?
Yep! They sure have!
There was one cigarette brand that bought out a team, and that company was British American Tobacco (BAT) who bought out Tyrrell. BAT turned them into British American Racing, later known as the infamous BAR Honda, which won a race with Jenson Button. The team used Supertec engines for their first year of competition before later on forming a partnership with Honda, which then went on for the next six years from 1999 to 2005. This is the exact same team with different branding we now know as the Mercedes AMG Formula One Team, which has gone on to dominate the Formula One scene for the past eight years, so everyone can thank British American Tobacco and Honda for Lewis Hamilton’s dominance if you think about it from the commercial side of things.
The JPS cigarette branding is a perfect example of how simplicity and style always works on a race car. My very own Traxstar Race Wear branding has been based on JPS cigarette branding for my own race team. The black and gold JPS brand is very easy on the eyes and easy to sell to people. Not only have I used those colours for my brand, but Rich Energy has also used the JPS black and gold branding for HAAS F1 for its Rich Energy drink two years ago in 2019.
Other iconic smoking brands include Marlboro and Ferrari who have always been associated with each other. Even to this day, the Philip Morris brand has been using “Mission Winnow” in its place, causing quite a stir. Somehow, between the multimillion dollar business and politics in Formula One they seem to let it slide in some countries, but it’s not allowed on any Ferrari merchandise or racing games, as it’s against the law in most other countries nowadays. In Formula One, as much as they try to get away from cigarettes it will always be there in some capacity.
Mclaren was also known for the Marlboro white and fluro red liveries with Ayrton Senna back in the day, but now Mclaren has even got support from VUSE a vape company. The one thing that’s missing is the commercials from cigarette companies, but corruption to let those brands still promote themselves is never far away from Formula One.
Mission Winnow is the loophole Marlboro cigarettes has used on its F1 cars for the past few seasons.
THE CIGARETTE GIANTS WIN THE WAR BETWEEN INDYCAR & CART
INDYCAR and CART couldn’t decide on their joint future back in 1979, eight years after cigarettes were slowly being outlawed, so the two American open wheel companies separated from each other. They continued to fight over the Indy 500, but it actually ended up creating more racing for it’s fans as a whole.
But, wait for it…
It was the cigarette companies who took the win here between the open wheel warfare. Roger Penske carried Marlboro red and white cars to victory lane in the Indianapolis 500 during these times, whilst on the CART side of things many remember the legendary Greg Moore winning in his Player’s livery alongside teammate Paul Tracy. Player’s cigarettes actually played a vital part in CART helping the series make a real name for itself away from INDYCAR when the American open wheel war happened. The most significant part was Player’s bringing in it’s driver ‘Young Development Program’, a long time before the RedBull young driver program, which brought in future racing champions like Alex Tagliani, Paul Tracy, Patrick Carpentier and of course the late Greg Moore who could've ended up making it to Formula One.
Cigarette companies also rivalled in CART (ChampCar). Most who watched this generation of American auto racing remember the blue Player’s livery and the KOOL green cars dominating the champ car series. As a kid growing up I remember watching the battle between Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy. It was green versus blue and it was awesome to watch two legends of the sport go toe to toe.
CART also used to race in the Gold Coast many years ago and I remember always seeing people wearing CART merchandise adorned with tobacco images and slogans, much like the V8 Supercars during its Winfield Triple Challenge days. I’ll never forget the battles between Players and KOOL champ cars. The only reason I know of CART and INDYCAR is because of those cigarette sponsors like Player’s, KOOL and Marlboro. They just don’t have striking liveries in INDYCAR these days, but they certainly have the roster of drivers like Champcars did back in the mid 2000’s. Nowadays in INDYCAR the sponsorship is filled by a range of companies including data and software companies like HITACHI, Panasonic, Verizon and GoDaddy.
Marlboro Penske cars dominated the streets on the Gold Coast.
NASCAR - I LOVED THE WINSTON CUP
The Winston Cup was widely known as NASCAR’s greatest ever era of its long history. You had guys like Dale Earnhardt, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Alan Kulwicki, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Bobby,Terry Labonte and the list goes on forever. Back then, NASCAR had its brightest stars and legends all racing one another in the same arena. The star power was unforgettable.
The Winston Cup also carried out the last championship without the playoffs or chase for the cup. It was just raw, exciting and full of energy to watch. NASCAR also had its highest ratings on tv back then, worldwide. Driver, Dick Trickle, was also widely known for having drilled a hole in his crash helmet, so that he could smoke while racing, He even installed cigarette lighters in his NASCAR’s! He was allowed by NASCAR to smoke in the race car during yellow flag-caution periods.
During the 1990 Winston 500, nowadays known as the Geico 500, Trickle was seen on live television by the in-car camera lighting up and smoking a cigarette and it got shown endlessly on SportsCentre in the states. You can guarantee that the brand Winston sold a shit load of smokes that day due to cheeky advertising like that.
These days you won’t see Kurt Busch drink a Monster Energy mid-race like you did back in those times because marketing has a lot more stricter guidelines for safety measures in motorsports. Funnily enough, myself or my family have never been a bunch of smokers, but as a race fan I’ve always been fascinated with the amount of money cigarette companies used to put into motorsports back then because it helped the sport I love grow and the Winston Cup NASCAR era was the most memorable for me. Motorsports is now consumed with telephone companies and energy drinks. Yes they pour a lot of money into the sport itself, but they are both unhealthy in different ways to cigarettes. It's all about getting the customer to be a consumer in motorsport sponsorship and that hasn't changed since the days of cigarette brands on race cars .
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
Let’s be honest.
Cigarette brands invested ridiculous amounts into advertising throughout the 1970-1990 era in motorsports globally. If it wasn’t for brands like Marlboro in Formula One, Winston in NASCAR and Winfield/Peter Jackson in V8 Supercars there may not have been a future in racing to race as professionals. This is because most racers and teams back then were privateers and had very little money to work with unlike the times we live in today. Back then, everything seemed to have more character from it’s stars of the sport to all those cigarette brands who used them to their full potential.
These days, motorsports and sport in general seem so cookie cutter all their marketing and nobody shows any real character on screen and everything is done by the book. Yes, we all know smoking is bad, but so are energy drinks, pharmacy drugs and fast food. Seriously, we do need some healthy, positive sponsorships kicking in right about now. But, at the same time, ones that have healthy wallets and ready to back motorsports in a positive manner.
The one thing smoking companies did with it’s racing drivers is let them be themselves and to be honest I think social media has killed off a lot of the genuine audiences who used to go out and watch motorsports. Companies nowadays know that they have to put even more effort into advertising unlike twenty to thirty years ago because it’s all at the click of a button or found on some app somewhere. We are more reactive than ever! It just does not stop!
I’d love to know your memories and thoughts on the smoking era of motorsports. Do you think there are better options for advertisers we could see trackside? What great commercials do you remember or even sporting stars that stood out in marketing campaigns? Could we take from this era and inject some of that nostalgia into today’s marketing, but of course with cleaner brands (if they do in fact exist)?
DH
Here’s an image of Matt Kenseth winning the 2003 Winston Cup Series before the playoffs came into effect.