On Monday, the secretary general of the Eurocare European Alcohol Policy Alliance, Mariann Skar, issued an open letter to Jean Todt. The letter expresses the organization’s concern over Formula One’s recent high-value partnership with Heineken.
Prior to the Canadian Grand Prix, Heineken, an alcohol company based in the Netherlands, announced a high-value partnership with Formula One. Although the exact value of the partnership has not been revealed, it is estimated to be worth between $150 and $250 million over a seven year period. The company logo will be placed trackside at many of the circuits, as we saw at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and the company will be investing in a large marketing campaign to help boost the publicity of Formula One.
Alcohol branding has always been present in Formula One. The open letter expresses concerns about the increased presence of alcohol sponsors in Formula One and says that the sport is becoming more of a global brand exposure venue than a sporting event. Tobacco branding used to also be popular in Formula One, with brands like Marlboro and Camel dominating the liveries of the top teams, until it was banned.
The open letter reads:
“Heineken recently launched their new sponsorship agreements with F1, a five year deal estimated to be worth $150 m. With this new deal, Heineken will place themselves as one of the main sponsors of the sport, with event name and circuit branding, TV commercials and other promotional activities. This is a major concern because alcohol and driving should not be mixed. Alcohol brands are now dominating sponsorships in F1, linking a popular motor sport to one of the major killers on our roads, drink driving.
Alcohol marketing has a powerful effect on society, in particular on young people. As you very well know, F1 is a sport heavily sponsored by alcohol producers, even before this new deal. A report on alcohol brand exposure during the F1 Monaco Grand Prix last year1 showed that there were on average 11 references to alcohol brands per minute – averaging one every five seconds. The promotion of alcohol alongside iconic sporting events reinforces and exaggerates pro-alcohol social norms. The Monaco Grand Prix has a worldwide audience of around 500 million people, and with the new deal in addition to the previous sponsorship agreement, F1 is close to becoming more an event for granting the global exposure of alcohol brands than a sporting event.
We have previously written to you about this concern2, and in your response you declare yours and FIA’s commitment to road safety, referring to your work with the ‘Action for Road Safety’ programme, in addition to yourself being a UN Special Envoy for Road Safety. We would like to remind you that drink driving is one of the key killers on the road. It is therefore worrying that F1 is now bringing the link between alcohol brands and motor sport even closer together.
We would like to request that you take this issue seriously and consider moving away from these sponsorship agreements, as you did with tobacco sponsorship. FIA is not without responsibilities, being the governing body of F1 and also being one of the shareholders in the sport.”
The official copy of the open letter can be downloaded from here and contains further links to other documents that relate to alcohol sponsorship in Formula One and other sports.
Weekend Summary: 2016 Canadian Grand Prix
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