Prix cars take sides on smoking

June 3, 1998

BY CAROL TEEGARDIN
Free Press Business Writer

As they roar at fantastic speeds around the curves of the Belle Isle Grand Prix race course this weekend, the NicoDerm-Nicorette Champ Car and the Kool Team Green car will target cigarette smokers.

Those behind the Kool Team Green car and other tobacco-sponsored cars in the Grand Prix want smokers to identify with their brands and light up.

The NicoDerm team is the first in major league auto racing whose sponsor wants people to quit smoking. "We are promoting smoking cessation products," NicoDerm driver Dennis Vitolo said. "If we can help people quit, I'm proud to be a part of it."

Steve Kapur, spokesman for NicoDerm-Nicorette would not disclose how much it costs to compete in a sport that has been dominated by cigarette companies for 30 years.

He would say only that NicoDerm got involved because research indicates there is a high incidence of smokers among racing enthusiasts. "We're appealing to smokers who want to quit," Kapur said. "Almost 75 percent of smokers we polled say they would like to quit, so we are making our name visible at venues that cater to smokers, like auto races."

The car has been on the Championship Auto Racing Teams circuit since September 1997, but this is the first time it has raced in Detroit.

Although tobacco companies said the presence of such a sponsor doesn't affect them, it serves as a smoke signal for tobacco marketing restrictions to come.

If a bill to regulate cigarette advertising, sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, becomes law, tobacco companies could be banned from putting brand names on race cars.

Last March, the 15-country European Union banned all tobacco advertising and gave cigarette makers until late 2006 to get out of sponsorships, including Formula One racing in the U.S.

In the United States, similar laws have been proposed. For now -- except for bans on radio and television -- tobacco advertising and sponsorship laws differ in every state.

"Obviously, we're hoping the McCain bill won't go through," said Bert Kremer, manager of sponsorship for the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., the Louisville, Ky.-based maker of Kool, Lucky Strike, Kent and several other cigarette brands. "The auto races have been a great marketing endeavor for us. In a competitive environment, our name on a race car just gives us good visibility."

According to research by the American Heart Association, the heaviest cigarette smokers are blue-collar workers with a high school education. Some race car fans fit that profile, and market research indicates they can be reached easily at the track.

"Race fans have their favorite driver, and there's no more rabid fan than the auto racing fan. He or she will wear the driver's T-shirt and hat, and they often have a cigarette brand's logo on it," said Dan Luginbuhl, vice president of communications for the Detroit-based Penske Corp., which owns the Marlboro Penske Mercedes car in the Grand Prix race. "People are loyal to those brands. People smoke those cigarettes. Auto racing sponsorship is another form of media for tobacco companies -- a billboard that has the added attraction of color and noise."

Brown & Williamson executives say race car sponsorship is worth big bucks. "When fans see the name of a car whiz by several times per minute, it can't help but reach them," Kremer said.

Vitolo said it's been the public's response to his car that has been rewarding for him. "People come up to me after a race and say they just quit smoking. Or, if they still smoke, they say they want to quit, and it's supportive to see a smoking-cessation car going around the track."

Gerald Doelle, executive director of the American Heart Association -- Michigan Affiliate, loves the idea of the NicoDerm car. He said he might even go to the races this year to see it.

"It's a great thing finally to have the other side represented in a race car sponsorship," he said.

"Each year in Michigan, the tobacco industry welcomes more than 123,000 new smokers to replace those who quit or die, and some 90 percent of those will be children or adolescents."

"The tobacco companies are not marketing cigarettes to young people. They are marketing them to adult race fans, period," said Scott Williamson, a Washington D.C., spokesman for the tobacco industry.

Business writer Carol Teegardin can be reached through E-mail at teegardin@det-freepress.com or at 1-313-222-8769.