McLaren extends British American Tobacco deal despite earlier criticisms: McLaren Racing has extended its sponsorship agreement with British American Tobacco (BAT) despite having previously faced criticisms for the association.
The brand first entered into an agreement with the Woking-based outfit, which operates teams in Formula 1, Formula E, Extreme E, Indycar and gaming, in 2019 and has used the deal to promote its tobacco-free nicotine and vaping brands Velo and Vuse.
Formula 1 banned tobacco advertising in 2006 but brands from the industry have continued to associate themselves with teams while ceasing to directly promote cigarettes.
At last weekend’s Suzuka Grand Prix in Japan, the McLaren F1 team promoted Vuse on its side pods and launched the latest iteration of the brand’s ‘driven by change’ campaign. The campaign champions rising artists by offering them the chance to display their artwork on McLaren race cars. BAT claims Vuse is the world’s most popular vaping brand.
Under the extension, BAT’s brands will continue to display on McLaren’s F1 race cars from the current season, and as part of the extension, will also feature on McLaren Formula E Team race cars for the remainder of the season.
McLaren faced calls from Dutch health organisations to remove the logo of BAT’s tobacco-free nicotine brand Velofrom its car for last year’s Dutch Grand Prix.
The KWF Dutch Cancer Society and the Dutch Heart Foundation, filed a complaint about the on-car branding to the Dutch Advertising Code Committee ahead of the event.
This followed the Dutch government’s decision in April last year to ban the sale of all types of nicotine pouches, citing concerns around the accessibility of addictive pouches and vapes to minors. Legislation on the advertising of such products had not been passed before the Grand Prix, leaving the door open for McLaren to feature Velo’s branding at the race.
As it transpired, the branding spot held by Velo was presented by the word ‘LOVE’ on the car, as part of a fan competition held by the team and the brand.
A McLaren statement at the time said: “All branding carried on McLaren race cars fully complies with regulatory requirements and advertising standards of each country we race in.”
At last year’s Miami Grand Prix, McLaren chose to include a warning alongside Velo’s branding on the sidepods of the team’s car. This read ‘WARNING: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.’
The United States Food and Drug Administration prohibits the advertising of tobacco and nicotine products by sports teams on their liveries, unless accompanied by a warning.
Kingsley Wheaton, chief growth and strategy officer, BAT, said of the latest deal: “We are extremely proud of the partnership we’ve built with McLaren over the last five years. Our shared expertise and lessons learned has helped us to build multi-billion-dollar brands and I am excited to see where this partnership goes from here.
“With cutting-edge innovation capabilities, purposeful brand engagement and a programme of events and projects which exemplify our commitment to diversity and inclusion – the McLaren partnership will continue to support BAT’s transformation agenda. With McLaren as a partner, we are well placed to continue building a Smokeless World.”
McLaren extends British American Tobacco deal despite earlier criticisms: Zak Brown, chief executive, McLaren Racing, added: “Together, we will continue to champion important causes, such as DE&I [diversity, equity and inclusion], and deliver campaigns that engage and excite our global fanbase.”