Ferrari forced to drop Marlboro from name
8 July, 2011
Jul.8 (PVM) Less than a month after concluding a new contract worth about $480-million over three years, Ferrari have to ditch the use of Marlboro in the naming of the team – thus Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro becomes simply Scuderia Ferrari.
Ferrari communications manager, Luca Colajanni said: “Ferrari and Philip Morris responded to recent questions about the official name of the team and decided with immediate effect that ‘Marlboro’ would no longer be the official name. Even if we do not agree with the concerns raised, our decision was made in our tradition to answer such questions with our actions, in order to avoid unnecessary debate.”
Meanwhile, nothing will change on the cars as the livery remains the same on the cars of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa which will remain “Marlboro” red.
This is a unique situation for a team to have virtually no branding on their car of their major sponsor at a time when finding big sponsors for Formula 1 is increasingly difficult. Marlboro has traditionally paid the driver salaries at the Maranello squad.
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- Video: Alonso on Ferrari’s 800th GP
- Ferrari rejects illegal Marlboro branding claims
absolutely
Twiinz, I have to agree and add my bit:
Let me point out that I hate smoke, smoking, most (not all) smokers, and the tobacco industry in general, with a PASSION, but what you have said is actually true, except for the omission of one important truth – governments won’t actually try to ban smoking as long as there are votes to be lost!
Stupid rule. Why is tobacco not allowed and alcohol is ok? Political correctness is ruining our society. It cracks me up that govts want all the tax money from smokers yet they shoot down the companies that produce the product at every opportunity. If it is so bad, why don’t they ban it??? They never will because they want the money. Hippocrates.