Posted on 01/28/2005 4:50:19 AM PST by SheLion
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- One year after kicking its decades-long cigarette sponsorship habit, NASCAR apparently needs a little help staying smoke-free.
Nicorette gum became the first smoking cessation product to enter NASCAR when GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare signed a sponsorship deal Thursday with Chip Ganassi Racing.
Three of its quit-smoking products -- the gum, the NicoDerm CQ patch and Commit lozenges -- will be advertised on the rear decklid of Casey Mears' car for the entire season. Nicorette will also be the primary sponsor on the No. 41 Dodge for one race in a deal estimated to cost the company $3 million annually.
The anti-smoking products enter the sport one year after R.J. Reynolds Tobacco's Winston brand ended its 33-year run as title sponsor of NASCAR's top race series. With wireless company Nextel replacing Winston, NASCAR has made an effort to distance itself from its tobacco chewing, cigarette smoking image.
Steve Kapur, marketing manager for Nicorette's parent company, said GSK encountered resistance from NASCAR when it first proposed entering the sport in 1996.
``They were appropriately loyal to their sponsor,'' Kapur said. ``We understood and moved our efforts to other areas. But when the opportunity came for us to get back in, we were thrilled.''
GSK Consumer Healthcare has a long relationship with NASCAR, positioning its Goodys Headache Powder as the ``Official Pain Reliever'' of NASCAR since 1977.
Now NASCAR is allowing the company to bring a traveling exhibit to 23 races this season with counselors on hand to help NASCAR fans quit smoking. GSK has also signed Richard and Kyle Petty to make track-side appearances on behalf of Nicorette.
``It's long proven that many NASCAR fans are smokers and they are heavy smokers,'' Kapur said. ``We've also found that many of them would like to quit smoking. So for us, this was the perfect place for us to be, especially because of how supportive NASCAR fans are of the sponsors.''
According to numbers from Simmons Market Research supplied by GSK, NASCAR fans are 28 percent more likely to smoke than other adults. Racing fans smoke 18 percent more cigarettes than other adult smokers and are more likely to smoke than NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB fans.
Just one tobacco product will be a Nextel Cup sponsor this year: Victory Brands will back driver John Andretti.
One of the top driver's is going to have Jack Daniels as a sponsor. if Nextel Cup is going to start stuffing this quit smoking garbage down our throats, I will throw NASCAR week-ends to the wind. I watch it for my favorite drivers and for the excitement of it all. But I refuse to take more punishment and abuse from the anti-smoking agenda.
Hard liquor is good, smoking is not? Where is the logic in this?
I guess the days of the 'good ole boys' are gone.
HARD LIQUOR IN - SMOKING OUT!
You mean they don't give out free cartons of cigarettes anymore? Oh man. Times have changed.
I'm glad to see Casey get a full season sponsor with so many others pulling out. Maybe this year he won't have to drive a pink car. I think any team fielding a pink car with a male driver should be eliminated bywhatever means necessary.
Sigh. . . the death of NASCAR is a sad thing to watch.
No. Now they are giving out little liquor bottles like you get on airplanes. heh!
I knew it would never be the same when NASCAR came under Nextel! Can't even watch the fights in the pits anymore. What fun is that? 7 second delay on TV.........they are trying to shelter us like little kids. Maybe they will hope we will get drunk on their liquor sponsor to numb the pain.
The men fans of NASCAR are men in the traditional sense of the word, and the women love them because they are men.
They don't worry about eating too much fat, drinking water without flouride, good chloresterol versus bad chloresterol, breathing exhaust fumes or smoking too many cigarettes. They live life and enjoy it without the fear the medical community tries to instill in society.
They may not live as long, but they enjoy what they have.
It's time some of these wusses that feel faint when they smell cigarette smoke learn that there is more to life than fear of dying.
Casey Mears? No relation!!!!!!!
I want to see a bumper sticker that says, "HANG UP AND DRIVE!" on one of those Nextel Cup cars.
Always follow the money behind the scenes. The patches don't work for #$%^ but maybe if you put them on the race car it'll stop smoking.
If you don't care about NASCAR and find it boring, why are you even commenting?
Heck, Mark Martin drives a car that is sponsored by Viagra. Sort of gives new meaning to the term "pole position," I guess.
The death of NASCAR??
NASCAR is in pretty good shape, if I'm not mistaken...
NASCAR is a business and thus can get sponsorship from any business that has the advertising dollar$. I see nothing wrong with advertising ANY product.
You mean I am required to be interested in something to comment on it?!? Ohh the horror!!
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