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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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To: SheLion

Next year there will be no winners, as to spare the "feelins" of the drivers who lost! Everyone will be a winner!


41 posted on 01/28/2005 12:06:02 PM PST by F105-D ThunderChief (That "THUD" you heard was the Collapse of the DemocRats!)
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To: F105-D ThunderChief; SheLion
"Next year there will be no winners, as to spare the "feelins" of the drivers who lost! Everyone will be a winner!"

And you, sir, have nailed it!

And everyone will stand around with, "Make Love, Not Winners", signs, suck on sugarless lollipops, hold hands and sing Kumbaya.

What is our society turning into?

42 posted on 01/28/2005 1:17:02 PM PST by TexasCowboy (Texan by birth, citizen of Jesusland by the Grace of God)
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To: Raycpa

So what you are saying is that anyone practicing their right to not give their time to watching NASCAR events due to these actions is not supportive of NASCAR's right to take these actions.

For some reason, I fail to see your logic. No where do these posters state that NASCAR doesn't have the right to take these actions. Instead, they say they will practice their right to no longer spend their time/money on NASCAR.

Of course, your logic fails to see the ability of people to make choices, therefore you would make such large leaps.


43 posted on 01/31/2005 9:00:51 AM PST by CSM ("I just started shooting," said Gloria Doster, 56. "I was trying to blow his brains out ....")
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To: CSM

But where is all the support for private property rights ?


44 posted on 01/31/2005 10:54:11 AM PST by Raycpa
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