Monaco and the tobacco ban

[Yoong Montoya]

Is Monaco exempt from the ban on tobacco advertising due to come in in 2006?(I think it's 2006). I don't know. Could someone fill me in here please?

[Damon]

Pretty much anything is legal there because it's a province in it's own right. It's only the EU member states that agreed to ditch cig advertising in 2006 (although they seem to want to bring that forward now).

[Red]

The tobacco ban that will come after 2006 applies to Motorsport. That is, no matter the Monaco legislation, the cars will NOT have cig's sponsorship.

[Valve Bounce]

Originally posted by Red
The tobacco ban that will come after 2006 applies to Motorsport. That is, no matter the Monaco legislation, the cars will NOT have cig's sponsorship.

OK Red, you are the computer wizard here. What are the chances of putting virtual ads on a car on the telly? not to mention virtual billboards. I mean, is there any way to put a WEST add on all the Macs going round, and Marlboro ads on the Ferraris and so on, so that on the track, the cars will have one primary and significant colour, and then the ads are put on them via computer technology as they appear on the screen? So the silver car will carry one ad, the red cars another, the green car another ad, and so on.

[Red]

On the cars, live, in real time, perhaps is much to complicated (if possible) to be feasible. (not sure though, perhaps I could be wrong). They can however put virtual ads somewhere in the landscape, guardrails, walls, banners whatever. But the point is that tobacco-sponsorship will be globally banned by FIA. If the local laws allow tobacco bans, they'll be free to advertise cigarettes during comercial breaks, but no ads on cars, tracks or anywhere else.

[Valve Bounce]

I didn't know the FIA was going to have a global ban . But yeah, the breaks will bring in a lot of mileage for tobacco in countries like Japan, China, India, Korea, etc., where the audience is huge, and the smoking is endemic.

[Red]

FIA considered that banning tobacco ads on a per-contry basis is not effective at all (they would still watch on TV cars with Marlboro logo, when the GP is somewhere else) and it will achieve nothing other than putting the teams into financial trouble. So they came up with the idea to ban it, but only if other countries would allow to delay it till 2006. (to help teams to find alternate ways of financing)

[Valve Bounce]

OK, so we'll have to go the ad breaks route. They used to flood the TV's in HK until tobacco ads were banned. However, I reckon there would be many countries where smoking is fashionable and which are over populated to blazes. India, for example, has a huge population, and so has China, and I am sure these people are sports mad. The Chinese would just about bet on anything, and the Indians also. We are talking about a TV audience that would put Europe to shame.

[Red]

The tobacco-sponsorship is dead. Doesn't matter if some countries (with huge audience) will still allow it. The 2006 ban was actually meant to protect the sponsorship, at least for a little while. Otherwise the situation was critical even since 97-98. To impose the global ban was a compromise.

The ad breaks will not help the teams, it's a business between local TV stations and cig-companies, the teams see no penny. The cig-makers will NOT pour money in the sport anymore, instead they would make deals with TV stations in countries where is allowed.

[Armco Bender]

Ever thought Monaco is a silly place to have an F1 race anyway,its always an interesting race but its days as an F1 track must be numbered.

[Mr V]

Originally posted by Red
On the cars, live, in real time, perhaps is much to complicated (if possible) to be feasible.

Do you think so? Your proberbly right, but, in CART in 2000 (??) i think it was, Toyota had "virtual advertising" put onto some of the cars (that used their engines) when they braked, so that the Toyota emblem glowed up within the wheel rims.

[Red]

:confused: yes, I think so, but I'm not at all convinced... Anyway, as I said it's useless anyway. After 2006 there will be no tobacco sponsorship at all. And until then they will have proper ads on cars, I can't see Benson & Hedges paying Jordan more than a pack of cigarettes for a virtual ad, neither Marlboro virtually sponsoring the Spanish GP...

[Logrence]

Monaco IS a part of the EU - they have the Euro.

[Red]

No, they're not. Besides, before that they had French Franks and they were not France.

[Rob29]

Originally posted by Armco Bender
Ever thought Monaco is a silly place to have an F1 race anyway,its always an interesting race but its days as an F1 track must be numbered.

I have seen something simlar quoted in a publcation of 1930. No doubt it will still be going in 2070!

[Yoong Montoya]

Originally posted by Armco Bender
Ever thought Monaco is a silly place to have an F1 race anyway,its always an interesting race but its days as an F1 track must be numbered.

I don't think so. It's one race which I think will always be around.

I think it's more a prestige affair than a race. The only time we really see it's role as a drivers track is in qualifying, which is always exciting. In the race, it's all about keeping the car on the road and being patient. I guess that's why Nigel Mansell never won there!

I think that if Monaco had a better track, they should use it. I want to watch a race, not a procession with the only excitement being who will DNF.