If it looks like a pack of cigarettes, it must be a F1 car. Of course that’s quite a ludicrous proposition, even if we’ve all seen F1 cars smoking, but apparently a rather bizarre allusion along those lines is being bandied about with a certain choice of livery, in this case Lotus-Renault GP’s.
It has all to do with the choice of the black base scheme with gold outlines, or not so much with the colours themselves – well, can’t have a car in white and red then, can we? – but rather the fact that the livery, officially unveiled at the Autosport International Show in Birmingham last week, derives its inspiration from the John Player Special-Lotus colours worn in the glory days.
Such nostalgia has been alluded to, in a big way, so there’s no denying that it’s a case of resurrection and not just picking black and gold out from the colour palette coincidentally or because it looked, well, pretty.
It is this intimation that may cause problems for the team in June at the Canadian GP in Montreal. A news report from The Globe and Mail in Toronto says that the livery may run afoul of the strict anti-tobacco advertising laws in place in Canada.
The point is, if the car looks even remotely similar to a cigarette pack it’s quite likely to violate Canada’s ban on tobacco advertising, even if the colour scheme has no connection to the former sponsorship or the John Player Special brand owner (in this case, Imperial Tobacco), the paper reports.
A Health Canada spokesperson said that “tobacco inspectors would need to fully review to assess whether a violation of the Tobacco Act has occurred” should a car painted to resemble a cigarette pack attempt to do the race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
The Act prohibits the promotion of tobacco products or tobacco product-related brand elements in Canada, except as authorised by the Act or regulations, and its definition of promotion is “a representation about a product or service by any means, whether directly or indirectly, including any communication of information about a product or service and its price and distribution, that is likely to influence and shape attitudes, beliefs and behaviours about the product or service.”
Such is the level of strictness that the black and gold colours of the John Player Special brand, which is sold in Canada, can’t even be displayed on Imperial Tobacco Canada’s website where it describes the brand. No pictures, no packaging, no brand colours, simple as that.
All this, naturally, arguably – or unarguably – means that the inspired-livery then could seriously fall short of getting through the gates if someone decides to get dictatorial about it. An alternative would be for Lotus-Renault GP to deploy an alternate colour scheme for Canada, but then FIA regulations stipulate that both team cars must be identical and sport the same livery for the entire season. Talk about getting a puff out of things.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
FIRST!
First stupid person, yeap!
i can’t agree more..
first to comment, last to get laid….cheers…
Cheer up guys. He actually really funny. Not only his comment is ‘FIRST!’, his nickname also ‘I AM FIRST’…
Thanks for the good laugh….
Gold mix with Black, is the funeral color for the rich.
Dey stupid, Germany’s team jersey in World Cup 2010 are the most awesome, either black/white or black/gold. I’ve only seen praises for their black/gold jersey especially!
This too, is awesome, you butthurt Ape-lonso fanboy! Hell yeah, Petrov is faster than you, can you confirm you understood that message?
WTF wrong with u?
Well, even if they change to other colour scheme, the exhaust still looks like a cigarette stick anyway.. What a ridiculous law..
Ferrari ran in red & white colours and nobody associated them with Marlboro, although in actual fact Marlboro IS STILL A SPONSOR!
Besides, the law banning tobacco advertising etc is just a half-assed attempt by the people in charge to be seen as doing something to combat the menace. I’ve been following F1 for a while now, and with all the F1 cars in their cigarette sponsored liveries I have not felt the urge to light up and have a smoke! Not once!
good point bro… anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how things turn out :)
Either way i support the ban. Why not ban the whole team. Regardless i still fell the G shouldnt be wasting money in F1, where all the money come from us hard earned rakyats income tax and whatsoever other taxes which i see fit to pay to make our country a better place and not some funny promotion which should have been done well in Shanghai World Expo but expectedly failed in predictable fashion.
Agree!
aiyoooo.. still rakyat money issue.. proton used rakyat money 25 years ago lar. after that they only receive some amount of rnd money for hundred of mill yearly… the fact is you contribute more money to gov if you buy foreign car
want to make gov poor?.. buy more proton car! stop buy high tax import car!
Nah i choose not to even buy a car. Thats not contributing to the G.
This is bloody Hao Siao!!!. Renault full yellow color also resembled CAMEL what. Din’t see them ban the car???? What a crock of shit.
The law is a bit off but then again….. with this Black and Gold scheme, how can one NOT think of the JPS cars?
The difference between Ferrari and this is
1) thats Ferrari…they play on different rules (lolz) – but even they had run into trouble as well
2) Ferrari’s colours are Red. If Mclaren tried to pull the same red and white livery (as they did in their original MP4), they would be equally whacked.
Since Jordan is off the grid, no one can accuse them of being sponsored by Camel..
But then again, if it was not the combined sponsorship of the big three (Philip Morris, Imperial Tobacco and British American Tobacco). F1 …and motorsport in general wont be where its at now. All the big names had at some time some tobacco sponsorship until the mid 90s….. one can always remember the iconic colours of John Player Special, Marlborough, Camel, West, Mild Seven, BA(R)/Lucky Strike…
Having lived in Canada, the Canucks do take this very very very seriously…. they were first to put the warning images on packs, probably first to ban smoking indoors and at public spaces…and nearly almost cancelled the 2004 Canadian GP after they banned Tobacco sponsorship.
So yeah, stupid as it may be, but someone didn’t quite do their homework properly. Lotus-Renault F1 should have known this. Renault got their asses kicked once and lost the Mild Seven sponsorship.
Not to be pedantic, but Jordan’s sponsored by Benson & Hedges, not Camel. Lotus was sponsored by Camel.
You do realize that Marlboro is still a official main sponsor for Ferrari & still being called Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro today.
Ridiculous law in Canada…..sigh -_-lll
The tobacco advertising laws in Canada are very strict. I’ve lived there. They will certainly give Lotus Renault GP a hard time as they did with Forsythe Racing. Canadians are very proud of their ‘moral rightness’. Imperial Tobacco Canada the brand owner for JPS in Canada can’t even have black & gold colours on their website.
Ferrari too had a very hard time last year with their Marlboro barcode logo and had to heavily modify.
Canadians should be commended for their tough stance on the law. However, like I said, the ban on tobacco advertising is a half-assed attempt. Instead of banning cigarette advertising, why not ban CIGARETTES in the first place? They can’t because it’s harder to ban and they’re afraid of the power wielded by cigarette companies, especially the big ones – Phillip Morris & BAT.
Canadians are a little weird sometimes. They are too proud of their human rights stance.
I saw a ‘skinhead’ once complete with menacing leather jacket. Thought they were racist b%$tards but then got a closer at their jacket and it said ‘skinheads against racism’ LOL
I agree with your point. To eliminate a problem, it’s always best to start from the root.
just wondering… if there any ban on liquour advertisement in F1?drunk drivers contribute more to fatal accidents than a smoking ones, right? can see a lot of liquor advertisement on Force India.. hmmm
If I’m not mistake in France there’s a liquor advertising ban. Ironic, considering the French are well known for their alcohol – champagne, cognac, wine among others.
before this i think there a 3 cigarette brand that involved in f1.. there a camel, mild seven and malboro.. and malboro is the famous one in this three.. and look what happen to ferrari.. nobody care about it until some doctor make a fuss about it.. i think ferrari play by different rule here.. it same like how they treat m.u and real madrid in football. just because they are bigger team that attract bigger audience/fan.. just let they play the way they want.. at least we make money by that.. duh..
Just change the gold colour to copper colour then in Canada.
so canadians imagine too much eh? will they fap if the CAR(it’s still a car) is painted like a bikini?
I can’t agree with this. There are only that many major colours & design you can do on a F1 car, Extremist can always find a chance to point finger IF they want.
Since the team has nothing to do with tobacco company nor sponser, why they want to make a big hoo-haa.
Personally, I still think of Marlboro everytime I see a Ferrari F1, where are the critics?
Maybe, just maybe, soon they will tell everybody that they will used BRG instead and tell TF to change their car to another color because this is ‘the real Lotus’. Hahaha.
It’s a joke, get it.
Canada, why so serious?
You know, you’re no angel either. Your product, Blackberry has turn into drug that made its users anti-social, into terrorist tool during 2008 Mumbai attack, an enemy to governments who like to stalk its people, so can’t you just let this bit pass? JPS is not even sponsoring Lotus-Renault for God’s sake!!
Oh heck, who am I kiddin’, I myself also crackberry user n “love what I do” hahaha :P
Get off from the contract with the Gilles Villenueve circuit from now on. invest on the Russia and India (never have ban on smoking). Problems settled!
good idea, there’s plenty of other circuits that willing to be on F1 calender so why give face eh? :)
bulls#it! canada’s government is spoiling the F1 fun.
ridiculous.
I need a ciggie..
Luckily they din put on that Tengkorak Rimau. Now that’d be really bad fengsui.
Is L-R paint their cars red, will they be accused of imitating Ferrari imitating a Marlboro pack?