Ferrari has announced that it is extending its sponsorship deal with Philip Morris International until the end of 2015.The deal is remarkable in that the laws these days ban all tobacco sponsorship on TV and thus the cars no longer run in Marlboro colours and indeed this year the team even got rid of the bar code design that was previously used. The value of the deal is no doubt in the team name which is Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, in the historical value of the relationship and such things as VIP hospitality and some use of the Ferrari cars in Marlboro promotions around the world. Philip Morris International long owned the entire Ferrari sponsorship space and sold it on to others, thus making its sponsorship very good value for money. In recent years that is believed to have changed a little with Ferrari finding its own backers rather more than was the case.
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joeblogsf1 
I think the Ferrari’s still run with the bright shade of Marlboro red that replaced the traditional Italian Rosso Corsa. I also think it’s amusing that the new 2011 Ferrari logo on their airbox seems to resemble the Marlboro logo even more than the barcodes ever did.
Apologies for the typos; still recovering from the 24h du mans and the 4h du Canada,
The Heineken Cup has to be called the H-Cup to conform to French alcohol laws. I to am mystified how the Ferrari official name can still include Marlboro?. Ferrari are sponsored by a tobacco company and the FIA are using that company’s name to all European countries in their broadcasts and communiques. How does that not break the tobacco advertising ban?. Plus despite the reluctant removal of the accidental ‘barcode’ Ferrari still have the heavily stylized Marlboro flag on the engine cover.
Since Marlboro is less connected visually, I would love to see the real Ferrari Crimson return as the base colour of their livery. But then, I ‘d also love to see every car with a big white circle holding a number in its center on the side pods and nose section.
They (Marlborough) used to have very nice girls around the trackside paths as well offering you packets of fags. Of course this was back in the day when most of us smoked, it was not a criminal offence and it only cost an arm to get in to the GP as opposed to the current both arms and one and a half legs. Hog roast was £1 and you could go in the pits at night and watch the teams building the race spec cars. (as opposed to the qualifying cars which were completely different) Quali was over two days and the sun shone, we camped in the car park. We didn’t care that Ferrari had five time the budget of other teams, but everybody hated Jean Marie Ballestre! Except for Liger and Renault..
Just as a contrast to today’s politically correct official F1 winners driver interviews take a look at the winners for this years TT. (This was tweeted by James Allen.) Lewis has nothing to fear! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxUlCmnntPQ&feature=share
rpaco,
Marlborough cigarettes? I presume they are named after the Duke?
Although it may be illegal, I do think that the laws has served its purpose, since if you didn’t mention it, and if I didn’t read about it elsewhere, I would not have known the car was advertising Marlboro. I only read the car name as Scuderia Ferrari before you mentioned it.
Joe, I have heard ferraris have 2 huge motorhomes at every grand prix … One for ferraris and one for Philip morris… And that the Philip morris one is impossible to get into!… Is that true?
Alastair
Nothing is impossible.
The half red half white motif on the air boxes of the Ferraris looks very Marlboro to me.
Joe – Certainly the TV adverts are banned (which keeps their name off the car) but is there anytthing stopping PMI/Marlboro from making the Ferrari connection in various web media, print media, billboards, signage, posters, etc. around the world? If it’s just TV they can’t do and they take advantage of all the other possibilites it seems to be a pretty enviable marketing package. I assume in places like Singapore and China there are huge Ferrari/Marlboro billboards and newspaper ads around GP time, no?
Joe, any idea when things changed in that relationship or was/is it just a gradual thing?
The logo on the engine cover may as well say “Marlboro” – it has cleverly been designed so as to look a bit like the iconic fag packet…
We’re down to the Red & White now after losing the bar code which prompted the question “what is the daft bar code here in place of” proof that subliminal reminders do work, red & white is probably sufficient for those with memories but the new kids won’t equate it with Phillip Morris. Sounds like alot of dollars for sponsorship that lacks the T.V Camera exposure they must have cut down the dollars to match.
Sauber F1 Team Montecristo, anyone?
There is, after all, a hint of Dumas in the return of Peter S. to set things straight.
Not sure Hunters Frankau (the western Cuban monopoly) would stretch to it, but they could send a case or two 🙂
I’m still not sure how much that red has changed, reverted i mean, nor content with the fact that advertising still works in subliminal ways. There are lots of ways to mix a color (especially in paint chemistry) to reflect components of different hues. Anyone fancy getting close enough with a CS100A spot color meter?
rpaco, dang it, you made me miss quali spec cars especially, and now i find something else missing from Saturday . .
cheers,
– j
Sorry, i should say that my joking plan to get the “true” color would in fact be a marathon chase, probably resulting in being declined further race entry. You’d need lots of readings in different light, and like all sharp tools, know how to point it. But there was enough red painted carbon fiber left scattered in Montréal . .
Lon,
serious point, and this might hark back to that little thing where Parr and Whitmarsh were banging on about the way F1 media is utilised. (something which struck me as positioning, not nearly as genuine as sitting down with fans and discussing real possibilities and how this might actually be delivered . . i thought it a tease)
If there were non public broadcast channels, at least for countries where this is permitted, internet streams might concievably be sponsored by the tobacco trade. Whether or not this would go down with teams and their self image, and their other sponsors, is another thing. That said, would it not fit, with reruns of old races where such liveries were everywhere? (and is that a technical objection to broadcasting old races?) But opening up the media assets to internet distribution invites all kinds of possibilities.
Alastair,
if there is such a VIP trailer, they surely keep the doors locked to keep the smoke from billowing down the paddock?
– j
Talking about Motorhomes, I think Bernies is lined up slightly differently to all the others so it pokes out a bit and stands out up and down the paddock. Just to remind them all who’s boss!
everyone knows how to get into somewhere you’re not supposed to be. You wait until someone who’s allowed in approaches, then nonchalantly breeze on in next to them and say “it’s ok he’s with me…”
”
I assume in places like Singapore and China there are huge Ferrari/Marlboro billboards and newspaper ads around GP time, no?
”
ANY form of tobacco advertising has been banned since before I was born in Singapore, much longer than it has been back home. The only place you will ever see Marlboro around here is on the actual cigarette packs.
When your turnover is 27 billion and you are not allowed to advertise in any other way this must seem very cheap for them.
As Ian said the current logo that replaced the barcode is clearly a Marlboro logo.
Ferrari claim it is a Ferrari logo but remarkably Ducati also have the same logo just as they had the same barcode and other non-Marlboro logos.