292. The. Sneakiest. Design. Ever.
Man, I have never gone this long without posting something. Yes, there's been a lot going on and since I'm now freelancing and back living in the western hemisphere, my schedule is all out of whack. But I'm ready to get back to my normal blog schedule and writing about what's been going on in advertising and design. I will say this though - lately, I've been pretty bored with everything that I've been seeing. Anyone else feel this way?
But this caught my attention and is anything but boring.
Imagine yourself as a major sponsor of the biggest and most successful Formula One racing team. Your identity and brand is intertwined with the race team and to some extent Formula One itself. You are in negotiations to financially sponsor this race team for the next five years and are willing to pay about $1 billion to do so. Unfortunately for you, the European Union is set to pass a ban on cigarette advertising and your company manufactures and globally markets cigarettes.
The law goes something like this: The Tobacco Advertising Directive: Passed by the European Parliament and Council in 2003 (see:IP/02/1788), the Directive bans tobacco advertising in the print media, on radio and over the internet. It also prohibits tobacco sponsorship of cross-border cultural and sporting events. The best I can tell is that this went into effect in 2005. Right around the same time as your contract negotiations.
Obviously, Formula One qualifies as a cross-border cultural and sporting event, but you go forward with your sponsorship anyway. And you state that the race team's Ferraris would simply not carry your brand's logo where there was this ban in place. Got all that?
This is exactly what has been happening with Marlboro. They've spent a ton of money to sponsor Ferrari's Formula One team without being able to brand the cars under this sponsorship. Basically, the Ferrari's appear to have no major sponsorship when raced in the EU. End of story? Not exactly.
In January, Ferrari presented the new Scuderia Marlboro F1 single-seater. (Ferrari is the only Formula One team with a tobacco brand in its formal title, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro.) At first glance the car is void of major sponsorship per the rules and has gone relatively unnoticed over the last four months. Now, however, 4 races into the year, the EU portion of the Formula One season is about to begin in Spain and the car's livery is in the spotlight due to the team's unique solution to the ban on advertsing.
The 2010 Ferrari Scuderia (Marlboro) F1, innocent top view:
The livery (paint job) features a predominately red car with a number of associate sponsor logos; Shell Gasoline, Ferrari itself, Bridgestone and a few others. The most striking aspect of this design and the subject of this article is a red, black and white barcode-like design on the canopy of the vehicle, as well as on the uniforms of drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipa Massa. Up close it just looks like a cool aesthetic touch but from a distance (and possibly even more clearly when moving 200 mph) it appears to resemble the packaging of a certain cigarette manufacturer. Can you guess which one?
The 2010 Ferrari Scuderia (Marlboro) F1, side view:
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Another Larger View (click for expanded version):
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The EU authorities are not amused. According to the Times (UK), "Yesterday a spokesman for the European Public Health Commissioner said he thought that Marlboro’s approach constituted potential subliminal marketing. He urged the Spanish and British governments to ascertain whether the world’s second-biggest tobacco company might be in breach of the law." Now, I think they may have their terms incorrect. I don't think it's technically a subliminal thing at all. It's more like an optical illusion, but it's hard to deny the intent of the manufacturue and racing team to skirt the law for the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix and for this summer's British Grand Prix.
The Barcode Design on Team Firesuits and Uniforms:
This quote comes from the Times as well: John Britton, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and director of its tobacco advisory group, said: “The bar code looks like the bottom half of a packet of Marlboro cigarettes. I was stunned when I saw it. This is pushing at the limits..." But true to form, Marlboro is denying these claims. Philip Morris said: “We are confident that our relationship with Ferrari does not violate the UK 2002 Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act. The Formula One Grand Prix in the UK does not involve any race cars, team apparel, equipment or track signage carrying tobacco product branding. The same is true for all other Formula One races across the world.”
The Ferrari Scuderia (Marlboro) F1 Team Logo Featuring Barcode:
Let me say two things. First, this is the most insanely creative design solution that I've seen in a long, long time. It's nothing short of genius. Second, it further demonstrates how desperate tobacco companies are to market their product in an increasingly legislated environment. This ingenius design only underscores what we think about these companies and although I love the design approach and problem solving, it's easy to see the intent here was to find a loophole in the law. In other words: to be sneaky. And this has been something in the works over time. Check out the 2006 car below, followed by 2007 and then compare that to this year's car. It's as if Marlboro has been trying to use a more innocent barcode design early on and then tweak it over time so there would be a precedent for the barcode as an team logo—even if it began to resemble the Marlboro packaging. Have I said the word genius yet? Or do I mean evil?
The Pre-Legislation Ferrari Marlboro Livery, circa 2005:
The Early Barcode Ferrari Marlboro Livery, circa 2007:
Detail shot of the 2010 Barcode Design:
It will be intersting to see how this little drama develops. Obviously this involves a lot of money, large corporations, even larger government entities and a deadline of a few days. And best of all maybe, it involves design and what does and does not constitute a brand's logo. Stay tuned. I promise to update this as soon as I get more information. See a little exploration / comparison of the barcode design and Marlboro combination mark. It's amazing how far away the two pieces are yet so close.
The Barcode on TV during the Australian GP:
A Visual Comparison of the Barcode (roughly comped) and the Marlboro Logo:
Like a few readers have pointed out, Ferrari will removed the barcode design starting at the Barcelona Grand Prix this weekend though admitting nothing in the process. "By this we want to put an end to this ridiculous story and concentrate on more important things than on such groundless allegations." See the article on Reuters here.
Autoblog has an small image of the new design. Interesting that they simply didn't go back to last year's efforts. Hmmmm.
*UPDATE : JULY 24TH : Turns out, the Ferrari Scuderia (Marlboro) F1 team has changed their logo. Of course this isn't an admission of guilt or anything - they just wanted to change the logo. Gone is the barcode in it's place a more standard type/color lockup. Thanks to LogoLounge for the update and for the linkback.
Reader Comments (49)
The jordan team did this for Benson & Hedges, removed a few letters to become 'be on edge'
Be on edge - https://gallery.photo.net/photo/4294847-md.jpg
Benson & Hedges - https://lh3.ggpht.com/_PA6V5rZPde8/S2wsimfAPgI/AAAAAAAAAQY/miy92Tzfrwc/1999%20Jordan.jpg
Very Very sneaky :P
https://www.automobilsport.com/upload/superleague-formula-2008/zakspeed-formula1.jpg
This is a classic example of the ramifications of positioning. Companies try everything within their power to control their 'position', even if it means crossing boundaries and manipulating or deceiving consumers.
It is also reminiscent of the mass economy and the belief that consumers are really going to subconsiously adopt the Marlboro brand as a result of this mind knumbingly pointless and extremely expensive exercise in futile manipulation.
Another example of a creative way to advertise tobacco when it's not allowed was by West and the Zakspeed team:
with WEST logo: https://www.f1technical.net/f1db/cars/626
and EAST: https://www.f1technical.net/f1db/cars/607
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/af/McLaren_MP4-4.jpg/800px-McLaren_MP4-4.jpg
Cheers!
Marcus - I don't think they believe that someone will smoke just because of the placement, or be more brand loyal b/c of the positioning, I just think they paid a billion dollars to sponsor a team that they want credit for, and yes eyeballs on their logo; which does provide a platform for communicating their brand's message - albeit somewhat sneaky and typical for a cigarette manufacturer. I actually think if they are legal and taxed, they should be able to be advertised, but that's just me and I've never been a smoker.
Luc - thanks for the East / West info - had not seen that before.
Mitch - Don't you think the Benson & Hedges is somehow less sinister? Maybe it's b/c it's only text and feel a little more obvious and therefore less evil. I don't know. But thanks for the info, really appreciate the comment.
err.. I mean, evil. Pure evil.
At races where cigarette advertising was banned outright, i.e. the UK and Germany, McLaren Mercedes F1 team had their driver's names in place of the West font; using the same font type and the same black/red background stripe, Mika Hakkinen simply had "Mika" on his car, whilst David Coulthard had "David" - I've also noticed this practice around the same time in various other race series around the globe.
On the flipside, if you'd never seen a race before i doubt you would make the connection!
Also, I have to agree with MattWM, how did every racing-fan commenting this article miss the Mika/David/Kimi on the West McLaren cars ?? :O That is more creative than the barcode if anything!! :D
ex: https://farm1.static.flickr.com/25/51917889_88d9573526_o.jpg