From the diamond to the gridiron, and from the race track to the tennis court, tobacco companies have long teamed up with sports around the world. These exhibitions are drawn from the Sports Sponsorship by Tobacco Companies collection of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society.
Tobacco and Sports Sponsorship audio clip from the Center’s exhibition,”Big Tobacco in the Big Apple” (02:13)
50 years ago women’s tennis teamed up with Philip Morris to create the Virginia Slims Women’s Professional Tennis Circuit. While the tour was a boost for women’s tennis, it also made an indelible stain on the sport by virtue of its association with cigarette smoking, the leading cause of death and disease.
Death defying speed, white-knuckle thrills…and smoke that kills. In 1971, the year cigarette commercials were banned from TV, cigarette and smokeless tobacco brand logos began appearing in televised auto races on the cars, drivers’ uniforms, billboards, and safety walls all around the tracks. RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company had just become the title sponsor of the most widely watched US car race series, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, which was renamed NASCAR Winston Cup Racing. From Formula 1 and the World of Outlaws SKOAL Sprint Car Series to Camel Motocross and Red Man monster truck rallies, Speed Kills chronicles the partnership between tobacco and motorsports–and the tobacco industry’s circumvention of the TV cigarette ad ban.
A Collection of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
From the diamond to the gridiron, and from the race track to the tennis court, tobacco companies have long teamed up to sponsor sports around the world. The exhibitions featured above are drawn from the Sports Sponsorship by Tobacco Companies collection at the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society.
Please also see “Sports Sponsorship by Tobacco Companies” csts.ua.edu/btba/sports/ and “Skoal-Dippin’ Man: The Bobby Murcer Story” csts.ua.edu/btba/sports/murcer/ in the Center’s exhibition, Big Tobacco in the Big Apple: How New York City Became the Heart of the Tobacco Industry…and Anti-Smoking Activism
Professor and Endowed Chair
Department of Family Medicine
Director, Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
The University of Alabama School of Medicine, Tuscaloosa
“Sports + Tobacco = A Losing Team” is Copyrighted 2020
ALL ITEMS IN THE EXHIBITION ARE FROM THE CENTER’S COLLECTION UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED.
Collections Manager and Digital Archivist (2018-2022)
Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society
The University of Alabama