The Impact of Tobacco Industry Sponsorship

• Sponsorship Details (PDF)
  
  
• Sponsorship Fact Sheet (Contents of this page as PDF)

Sponsorship markets tobacco brands to kids

• A considerable body of research suggests that tobacco sports sponsorship may influence youth smoking attitudes and behavior. This research has found that cigarette sports sponsorship has profound affects on brand awareness, perceived connections between brands and sport, associations between cigarette sports sponsorship and excitement, attitudes about smoking, and smoking behavior. 11
  
  
• The majority of studies regarding tobacco sponsorship agree that its effects on children are similar to those of traditional tobacco product advertisement and promotion12; about 1/3 of adolescent experimentation with smoking results directly from tobacco advertising and promotion.13
  
  
• Tobacco industry sponsored events are typically home to tobacco brand promotional activity. Research shows that children who participate in promotional activities are over 9 times more likely to smoke than other children.14

And they don't have to be at the event to be affected.

Even complying with the Master Settlement Agreement's restrictions on event sponsorship and marketing to kids, tobacco companies will be able to achieve 25 hours of television exposure, an equivalent of $99.1 million in television advertising value, per year through sponsorship of sporting events or teams.15

"We are in the cigarette business. We are not in the sports business. We use sports as an avenue for advertising our product."

- RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company

• A study in the UK revealed that about 1/3 of 10- and 11-year olds and more than half of children 12 and older could name cigarette brands and their associated sponsored sports.16
  
  
• The effect is often subliminal. In the study mentioned above, while only 9% of under-12-year-olds could identify Marlboro and John Player Special as major auto racing sponsors, 47% of them identified those brands as being liked by someone who likes excitement and fast racing cars. 17
  
  
• Simply knowing of a friend who has participated in tobacco promotional activities makes youth 3 times more likely to smoke18; and
  
  
• Just being willing to use a tobacco promotional item has the same impact as actually owning the item on increasing your smoking susceptibility.19

Sponsorship pays off for tobacco companies.

• Between 1995 and 1999, tobacco companies sponsored at least 2733 events, programs, and organizations in the US, with funding adding up to a minimum of $365.4 million.20
  
  
• In only half of that period, these sponsorships allowed for tobacco brands to have 169 hours of television exposure, an advertising value of $410.5 million.21

"Music is the second of our targeted promotional themes and Marlboro is involved in a big way.... The real benefit of the concept is the quality of the personal contact which ensures that Marlboro and music are firmly linked in our target group's mind."

- Philip Morris, 1990

References

11Siegel, Michael. “Counteracting Tobacco Motor Sports Sponsorship as a Promotional Tool: Is the Tobacco Settlement Enough?” American Journal of Public Health. 2001; 91: 1100-1106.

12Cornwell, T Betina, and Maignan, Isabella. “An International Review of Sponsorship Research.” Journal of Advertising. 1998; 27(1): 1-21.

13Pierce, John P., et al. “Tobacco industry promotion of cigarettes and adolescent smoking.” JAMA. February 1998; 279(7): 511-515.

14Altman, David G., et al. “Tobacco Promotion and Susceptibility to Tobacco Use among Adolescents Aged 12-17 Years in a Nationally Representative Sample.” American Journal of Public Health. Nov 1996; 86(11): 1590-1593.

15Siegel, Michael. “Counteracting Tobacco Motor Sports Sponsorship as a Promotional Tool: Is the Tobacco Settlement Enough?” American Journal of Public Health. 2001; 91: 1100-1106.

16Aitken, PP, et al. “Children’s awareness of cigarette brand sponsorship of sports and games in the UK.” Health Education Research: Theory and Practice. 1986;1(3):203-211.

17Ibid.

18Altman, David G.. 1996.

19Pierce, John P. 1998.

20Rosenburg, N Jennifer and Siegel, Michael. “Use of corporate sponsorship as a tobacco marketing tool: a review of tobacco industry sponsorship in the USA, 1995- 1999.” Tobacco Control. 2001; 10: 239-246.

21Siegel, Michael. 2001.