TOBACCO ADS BEGIN
By Adnews Staff
Toronto-based Rothmans, Benson & Hedges has become the first off the mark with advertising since Canada's Supreme Court struck down a ban on tobacco ads. The tobacco manufacturer launched a print and outdoor campaign this week for its Canadian Classics brand of cigarettes. It is running in Toronto, and will be rolled out nationally at a later date. The ads display well-worn Canadian images - a touque, a maple leaf and a plaid shirt - under the headline "Pure Canadian Classics." In the background of all this lurks the shadow of a moose. The print and outdoor campaigns follows a TV commercial that broke late last month in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Also, Rothmans put up a site on the World Wide Web earlier this month, which has Rothmans Formula One pages and a Craven A Today's Country section.
Like the Web site, the TV spot doesn't make a direct sales pitch for cigarettes; instead it flashes the Rothmans logo all over the place. The ads passed muster with a special tribunal set up late last year to ensure that tobacco advertising conforms to a code written by the Tobacco Manufacturers Council. The TMC rules allow tobacco companies to advertise on TV and radio providing the commercials push an event, not a product. The TV commercial promotes a Formula One car race that will take place in Montreal in June. The spot features popular driver Jacques Villeneuve, who is new to the Rothmans Formula One team this year. Villeneuve is dressed in racing gear bearing the Rothmans logo. He dons a helmet marked "Rothmans" and drives off in a race car decorated with the Rothmans logo. All the advertising was created by the Toronto office of Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising. The move into television plunges Rothmans even deeper into advertising than it was before the Conservative government brought in its ad ban in 1988. For years before that, tobacco companies had voluntarily refrained from broadcast advertising.
Montreal-based cigarette maker Imperial Tobacco will start advertising "soon" but still hasn't decided when or what media will be used, spokesman Michel Descoteaux told Adnews yesterday. Imperial's ad agency is Armada Bates in Montreal.
Meanwhile, the federal Liberals are planning legislation that will stop all tobacco advertising and sponsorships, and also stand up to legal challenges. An Angus Reid/Southam News poll of 1,511 Canadians last month found that 57% supported an ad ban while 41% were opposed. Sixty per cent believed tobacco ads don't just make smokers switch brands but encourage people to start smoking. Seventy-five per cent felt an ad ban would not reduce smoking in Canada.