Uk Tobacco Advertising Ban To Include Sport Sponsorship

The governments draft bill on tobacco advertising will include a ban on sports sponsorship, Frank Dobson, the health secretary, said on Monday.

The announcement that sponsorship would be included in the legislation took the industry and sport by surprise. Previous indications were that it would be included in the white paper on a tobacco advertising ban planned for the summer, but that legislation on sponsorship might come after an initial ban on other forms of advertising.

However, while the draft bill will now cover all forms of tobacco advertising, including sponsorship, sport will be given time to find more benign sponsors, Dobson told the Royal College of Nursings annual congress in Harrogate.

 

We recognise that some sports are heavily dependent on tobacco sponsorship, he said.

We do not wish to harm these sports. We will therefore give them time and help to reduce their dependency on the weed.

The tobacco industry spends about 8 million a year on sponsorship in the UK much more around the world with cricket, golf, rugby league, darts and snooker among the sports benefiting.

The industry declared itself very disappointed with the move and angry that health ministers have so far refused talks on the issue.

But Sir Rodney Walker, chairman of both the English Sports Council and Rugby Football League whose challenge cup is sponsored by Silk Cut, said the decision was consistent with what Ive always been led to believe will happen.

Many sports, including rugby league, would face problems in finding alternative sponsors, he said, but we havent sat idly by waiting for that day to come. No sensible or prudent organisation would do that.

Sports governing bodies hope Dobsons remarks imply that existing contracts will be allowed to run, although with some contracts extending into the next decade the government may want swifter action.

John Perera, of the API sports sponsorship consultancy, said big sports would find new backers relatively easily all the most recent deals have come from outside the tobacco sector. Less wealthy sports such as darts, snooker and ice hockey would face greater difficulties.

Gallaher, with 40 per cent of the UK market, said the announcement made no difference to its plans to demerge from its US parent American Brands, with trading in its shares due to start on May 30.

Its survival of the fittest now

Patrick Harverson & John Griffiths

For Britains biggest sports, Mondays announcement that the government intends to ban sponsorship of sporting events by tobacco companies will prove a considerable inconvenience but not necessarily a financial disaster. Although tobacco companies spend millions of pounds every year on sport in the UK, the nationally popular sports with long-standing ties to the tobacco industry, such as cricket and motor racing, are confident they can either find replacement sponsors or ways around the new rules.

But for less wealthy sports such as snooker, darts and ice hockey, the ban could have serious financial consequences.

On Monday the British Darts Organisation, which has a contract with Embassy to sponsor its two biggest events, described the governments proposal as a huge blow, while David Temme, chairman of the ice hockey Superleague, said the plans were serious for us.

The sports world has known for some time that its relationship with the tobacco industry was under threat, an awareness that led to a gradually reduced involvement by tobacco companies in some sports.

But the industrys support for events and teams remains substantial. Current deals range from Rothmans 15 million-a-year backing of the Williams-Renault Formula One motor racing team, to Benson & Hedges 4 million five-year deal in one-day cricket, and the same brands 250,000-a-year sponsorship of the ice hockey knockout competition. FT

The extent to which these deals will have to be scrapped or renegotiated will depend on the nature and timing of the proposed ban, which for the moment remains unknown. However, Mr Frank Dobson, the health secretary, has said the government would give sport time to reduce its dependency on tobacco advertising and find other sponsors, and sport is hoping it will be allowed to honour existing deals with tobacco companies. Yet several of the deals are still in their infancy - Benson & Hedges new 4m sponsorship of snookers Masters event will not expire until 2002 - and the government is unlikely to want to wait up to five years before finally eliminating cigarette brand names from the sporting landscape. Even if sports are forced to change sponsorships midstream, industry experts believe the best-known competitions should have no difficulty in attracting new backers. Mr John Perera, head of sponsorship consulting at API, the sponsorship agency, said: The lack of available quality sports properties is the

problem. A number of very valuable sponsorship properties will now come on the market - such as in cricket and rugby league - and I believe they will have no difficulty in finding replacement sponsors. It will be more of a struggle for less mainstream sports like snooker and darts. The one sport that appears likely to be most inconvenienced by the ban, Formula One motor racing, is not unduly concerned by the proposals. It receives by far the largest proportion of roughly 100m in tobacco sponsorship funds going to motor sport each year, but will suffer very little in practical terms from the intended legislation. This is partly because for some years no tobacco brand names have been displayed on cars or anywhere else at the British grand prix, under a voluntary code agreed in the late 1980s. The code also exists in Canada, France and Germany. Yet even with these restrictions in place, Philip Morris, Rothmans, RJ Reynolds and other tobacco groups have been highly successful in getting around the agreement by

having the cars they sponsor painted in liveries instantly associated with their brand names, even though the name itself does not appear. Copyright Financial Times