Marlboro Race Car
Posted April 28th, 2010 @ 11:35pm by Erik J. Barzeski
A nifty article that boils down to necessity being the mother of invention: a race car had a bar code decal applied in places where cigarette advertising (sponsorship) is banned.
Frankly, I don't get the ban on cigarette advertising. How many people take up cigarettes because of a logo on a race car? Seriously? And if they're that easily swayed, isn't their eventual premature death a great application of natural selection? 😛
(The previous paragraph is primarily tongue in cheek. I know smokers increase the health care costs for everyone else, blah blah blah.)
Donate Life
Posted 17 May 2010 at 7:59am #
In the three years I've been watching Formula One, I have never made any association between the barcode and the design of a cigarette pack. Have they uncovered a great subliminal story, or are they just making connections and assumptions that just aren't there?
Posted 18 May 2010 at 6:53pm #
There are actually really interesting stories out there like this. I just read the book Buyology where the author mentioned a drug (or maybe it was liquor) company that had purple silk in the logo on their billboards. Then one (or several) European country banned drug related billboards, so the company just put up billboards of purple silk, and people still recognized them.
Posted 20 May 2010 at 7:30pm #
I found that their old design (a few years ago) worked better, though I can't find an image. It was basically tapered red bars on a white background that reminded mainly of the M, l and b.