THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 15, 1995 TAG: 9508150414
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
The door to the NASCAR trailer was wide open last weekend at Watkins Glen International.
NASCAR president Bill France Jr. was presiding over the weekend's activities, and he was ready to talk. So was T. Wayne Robertson, president of R.J. Reynolds' Sports Marketing Enterprises.
War had been declared in Washington, and the most powerful men in stock-car racing had risen to defend the involvement of tobacco companies in sports sponsorships.
``This horse has got four good legs, and it's a damn good horse,'' France said Sunday of RJR and its 25-year sponsorship of the Winston Cup stock-car series.
On Thursday, as the NASCAR teams were traveling to upstate New York for the annual road race at Watkins Glen, President Clinton dropped the hammer on the tobacco industry. Clinton declared nicotine an addictive drug and instructed the Food and Drug Administration to draft a series of regulations that, among other things, would ban brand-name cigarette advertising at sports events.
Five cigarette makers, including R.J. Reynolds, immediately filed a lawsuit against the FDA.
As France pointed out, there are more unknowns than knowns about the issue at the moment. But NASCAR and R.J. Reynolds already were focusing on two areas - a lack of thoroughness by the FDA and the issue of youth smoking.
They attacked the FDA for being sloppy and incomplete on its advance work, particularly as it relates to the proposal to restrict tobacco company sponsorship of racing.
``There's been no research on how this might affect somebody like us, as opposed to the good it would do,'' France said.
He said the FDA published a 600-page document about the proposed rules, and only three-fourths of a page has to do with the restrictions on sports sponsorships.
``Even what they put out is confusing,'' he said.
He cited the proposed rule that would permit sponsorship of sports events in corporate name only rather than a brand name, such as ``RJR Cup'' instead of Winston Cup.
The proposed rule goes on to say: ``This provision does not include teams or entries in events, e.g. stock cars and their crews, which are treated as `reminder advertising.' ''
``We don't even know what they mean by `reminder advertising,' '' France said. ``And they haven't said.''
France and Robertson hammered on the issue of teenage smoking.
``We spend millions of dollars telling kids not to smoke,'' Robertson told the drivers at Sunday's pre-race driver's meeting. ``This is not a teenage smoking issue. Not a person in here can say that in 25 years of RJR's involvement, we've asked anybody to smoke.''
Said France: ``The question seems to be, how does Winston sponsoring NASCAR, how does that impact the younger age groups? When you start focusing in on that, the only thing I can see would be that drivers are people young children view as role models.
``I've never seen Dale Earnhardt or any driver get out of a car and pressure anyone to smoke,'' France said, ``and I know Reynolds has never asked a driver in 25 years to see what they could do to encourage young people to smoke. So I think they've stepped off into the wrong area as it pertains to auto racing.''
R.J. Reynolds spends an estimated $10 million a year sponsoring stock-car racing, including the Winston Cup series and two of its major races. But considering the sport's tremendous growth, and the restrictions already in place on tobacco television advertising, has it outlived its usefulness as NASCAR's primary sponsor?
``Our position is that Winston and RJR have been good sponsors for this series, they've been with us a long time and they've helped us get to where we are now,'' said France, himself a smoker of R.J. Reynolds cigarettes.
``They're selling what is a legal product. It might be controversial in some respects, but from my experience and from what they've asked us to do, this has not been just an extension of their sales arm.
``I don't feel like Reynolds as a series sponsor is a detriment to the growth of this sport.'' ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
R.J. Reynolds, which produces Winston cigarettes, spends an
estimated $10 million a year sponsoring stock-car racing, including
NASCAR's flagship Winston Cup series.
by CNB