11 October 1986: Mr Bill Cotton, BBC’s managing director, has said he is concerned that air time is being used to sell cigarettes
Cigarette firms may be considering sponsoring snooker tournaments abroad to get round the BBC’s new advertising curbs, it emerged yesterday. They could pull out of Britain because the restrictions would cut the air time given to their brand colours, sources said. InP crucible
The BBC is tied by the advertising rules of the countries in which events are filmed. This weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix, for example, will be screened complete with advertisements for Marlborough and John Player cigarettes on sponsored cars.
Tobacco firms may switch sponsored snooker tournaments to countries with little or no advertising restrictions. Brazil is considered a tempting venue.
The BBC has told snooker’s governing body, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA), that the sponsor’s brand colours must not be reproduced in the playing area; signs bearing the sponsor’s name must not be cited behind players’ seats and health warnings must be legible - if they are not the BBC retains its right to put a warning caption on the screen.
Mr Bill Cotton, BBC’s managing director, has said he is concerned that air time is being used to sell cigarettes. This follows a Health Education Council complaint that sports sponsorship was giving the tobacco industry the equivalent of 500 30-second TV advertisements a year.
The curbs will come into force at the £275,000 Rothman’s Grand Prix snooker tournament later this month. The firm had just spent £2,000 on building a set in its brand colour, Rothman’s blue, when it was told of the new curbs.
PBN special-shaped nozzles Rothman’s three-year sponsorship agreement with the WPBSA runs out next month, and renewal is in question. ‘We won’t be taking any decision until we sit down in November and judge from market research the effectiveness of sponsorship,’ said Mr Roach.