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Excerpts from: Cigarette Makers Use TV Sports to Advertise
 

By Alan Mozes, Reuters Health   drkoop.com  [07/02/01]

                   NEW YORK - Circumventing a US federal ban on TV advertising of both
                  cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, major American tobacco companies have
                  increasingly turned to corporate sponsorships of motor sports events to keep
                  a high public profile and gain new customers, according to a new study.

                  "The magnitude of tobacco advertising that the companies are achieving is
                  extremely high," said study lead author Dr. Michael Siegel, an associate
                  professor at Boston University's School of Public Health in Massachusetts.

                  In the study, Siegel tracked the degree of exposure that various sponsors
                  receive as a result of promoting their products and logos via motor sports.

                  Siegel focused on information gathered by "Sponsors Reports" between the
                  years 1997 and 1999. The service -- published by Joyce Julius and
                  Associates of Ann Arbor, Michigan -- tallies both verbal mentions of a product
                  or company during a range of sporting events, as well as the
                  second-by-second time during an event that a name or logo remains visible
                  and recognizable on a TV screen.

                  Siegel focused on 11 different auto racing series that were broadcast on 10
                  different TV networks over the 3-year period. He found that in 1999 alone an
                  average of 2.4 million viewers saw each of the races on TV--in addition to the
                  over 17 million who actually attended all of them over the course of the year.

                  With such exposure, the researcher calculated that the tobacco companies
                  gained almost $157 million worth of TV advertising exposure in 1999 and over
                  $410 million for the whole 3-year period. He further noted that in 1999 alone,
                  nine different brands of tobacco products were able to amass almost 57
                  hours of TV exposure and over 8,400 verbal mentions through such race
                  sponsorships. The findings are published in the current issue of American
                  Journal of Public Health, journal of the American Public Health Association.

                  Siegel concluded that the recent signing by most tobacco product producers
                  of the multi-state Master Settlement Agreement--severely limiting the use of
                  TV ads for the selling of cigarettes--has not sufficiently accomplished its
                  intended goal of curtailing tobacco exposure through this medium.

                  Also, Siegel noted that the November 23, 2001 deadline for limiting tobacco
                  company sponsorships to a single sporting event or series does not hold out
                  much promise of significantly closing this advertising loophole. He predicted
                  that the dollar value of such TV exposure -- after this deadline passes --
                  would probably amount to over 70% of what tobacco companies already
                  achieved in 1999.

                  Siegel told Reuters Health that such an outcome would render the law almost
                  meaningless -- even before considering other modes of exposure which "big
                  tobacco" uses such as sports magazines, TV shows about racing, and
                  on-site racing event promotions. However, he strongly suggested that
                  currently existing legislation could be effective in limiting this type of
                  round-about advertising -- if political will demands stricter enforcement.

                  "There is already a ban on TV advertising," he said. "There's nothing new
                  that's needed. There is a law that's in place and the tobacco companies have
                  agreed to abide by that law, but the problem is that the law is not being
                  enforced. So the Department of Justice should enforce the law, because I
                  don't see any reason why motor sports should be exempted when millions of
                  people are watching these events on TV."

                  He added, "If policy makers are serious about reducing tobacco use, then
                  they should eliminate the sponsorship of motor sports event by tobacco
                  users."

                  SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health 2001;91:1100-1105.