Tobacco companies advertise in F1 with barcodes

by Leonard Goh |
When the F1 night race revs up in September, don't expect to see vinyl stickers of Marlboro adorning the side of the vehicles. Complying with Singapore's law that no advertising, promotion or sponsorship by any tobacco companies are allowed, race teams have found a way to get around them.

Instead of the usual in-your-face stickers, the companies have resorted to using strips of barcodes for their campaigns. The Ferrari team and Marlboro have adopted this form of advertising since 2005 and we can expect them to do the same when they zoom down the streets in Singapore.

Which leads us to wonder: How are the non-discerning eyes going to spot and know that Marlboro is one of the sponsors? Unless the F1 cars zip into a supermarket, the barcodes will probably remain just as decorative strips on the cars.

Picture credit: Zerotohundred.com

Latest comments

so how is one going to knwo its a marlboro or salem or dunhill ? ? you got to scan it in with your hp ? or somethign like that when you see the car zooming into the lane ?

Posted by isaac976
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How are the non-discerning eyes going to spot and know that Marlboro is one of the sponsors, you ask. I think you'll find that the television viewers will see something altogether different when the barcodes are replaced by sponsor logos and advertisements. Isn't technology cool?

Posted by kru123
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