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Quit-smoking product enters NASCAR
yahoonews.com ^ | 1-18-05 | JENNA FRYER

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: addiction; antismokers; bans; blackjack; buttlist; butts; cancer; cigarettes; drugaddicts; emphysema; fda; individualliberty; johnnycarsondead; lawmakers; maine; nascar; niconazis; professional; prohibitionists; pufflist; regulation; rinos; senate; smoking; stench; taxes; tobacco
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This wouldn't bother me so much if NASCAR didn't recently get into bed with Jack Daniels.  I lost that link.  If anyone has it, please post it here.

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!

 

1 posted on 01/28/2005 4:50:20 AM PST by SheLion
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To: TexasCowboy; Just another Joe; Great Dane; Madame Dufarge; Gabz; MeeknMing; steve50; KS Flyover; ...

2 posted on 01/28/2005 4:51:20 AM PST by SheLion (God bless our military members and keep them safe.)
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To: SheLion

You mean they don't give out free cartons of cigarettes anymore? Oh man. Times have changed.


3 posted on 01/28/2005 4:56:15 AM PST by GVnana (If I had a Buckhead moment would I know it?)
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To: SheLion

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.


4 posted on 01/28/2005 5:00:35 AM PST by Fierce Allegiance (GO PATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
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To: SheLion
with counselors on hand to help NASCAR fans quit smoking

Sigh. . . the death of NASCAR is a sad thing to watch.

5 posted on 01/28/2005 5:04:30 AM PST by Flyer (We are the pajamahadin ~ We know everything. ~ No forgeries no fakes no urban legends and no BS)
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To: GVgirl
You mean they don't give out free cartons of cigarettes anymore? Oh man. Times have changed.

No. Now they are giving out little liquor bottles like you get on airplanes. heh!

6 posted on 01/28/2005 5:04:51 AM PST by SheLion (God bless our military members and keep them safe.)
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To: SheLion
Should be a good thread: smoking, drinking and driving, three of my favorite things.
;O)
7 posted on 01/28/2005 5:04:52 AM PST by metesky ("Brethren, leave us go amongst them." Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnston Clayton - Ward Bond- The Searchers)
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To: Flyer
Sigh. . . the death of NASCAR is a sad thing to watch.

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.

8 posted on 01/28/2005 5:06:51 AM PST by SheLion (God bless our military members and keep them safe.)
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To: SheLion
It's time to tell it like it is:

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.

9 posted on 01/28/2005 5:09:46 AM PST by TexasCowboy (Texan by birth, citizen of Jesusland by the Grace of God)
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To: SheLion

Casey Mears? No relation!!!!!!!


10 posted on 01/28/2005 5:40:56 AM PST by Mears
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To: SheLion

I want to see a bumper sticker that says, "HANG UP AND DRIVE!" on one of those Nextel Cup cars.


11 posted on 01/28/2005 5:44:04 AM PST by newgeezer (When encryption is outlawed, rwei qtjske ud alsx zkjwejruc.)
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To: SheLion
More hypocrisy of the smokers. Its only all about private property rights, unless of course the private property owner is against smoking.
12 posted on 01/28/2005 6:05:57 AM PST by Raycpa
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To: SheLion

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.


13 posted on 01/28/2005 6:08:49 AM PST by NaughtiusMaximus ("The most disgusting post I've ever read." Recent FR dilletante to Naughtius.)
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To: SheLion
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.

I dont know about the other stuff Nascar is doing (I dont care I think Nascar is boring honestly), but the team did sign a contract with the sponsor and assuming that nothing uncivilized happens with the crew the driver or the company, its probably legally binding at this point. Besides which this guy didnt have a sponsor so I say good for him....
14 posted on 01/28/2005 6:21:04 AM PST by MikefromOhio (An isolationist America will not ensure our safety.)
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To: newgeezer
Me too!! All cell phones need to automatically cut off in restaurants.
15 posted on 01/28/2005 6:30:59 AM PST by Coldwater Creek ('We voted like we prayed")
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To: MikeinIraq

If you don't care about NASCAR and find it boring, why are you even commenting?


16 posted on 01/28/2005 6:32:29 AM PST by Coldwater Creek ('We voted like we prayed")
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To: SheLion
I think people are reading too much into this. The company that markets this product is no different than any other -- it's not like NASCAR went out of its way to send a message by seeking this type of advertiser.

Heck, Mark Martin drives a car that is sponsored by Viagra. Sort of gives new meaning to the term "pole position," I guess.

17 posted on 01/28/2005 6:37:26 AM PST by Alberta's Child (I'm not expecting to grow flowers in the desert.)
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To: Flyer

The death of NASCAR??

NASCAR is in pretty good shape, if I'm not mistaken...


18 posted on 01/28/2005 6:40:42 AM PST by gjpino (FReeper AKA Guillermo)
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To: gjpino

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.


19 posted on 01/28/2005 6:48:53 AM PST by phil1750 (Love like you've never been hurt;Dance like nobody's watching;PRAY like it's your last prayer)
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To: mariabush

You mean I am required to be interested in something to comment on it?!? Ohh the horror!!


20 posted on 01/28/2005 6:57:17 AM PST by MikefromOhio (An isolationist America will not ensure our safety.)
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