Wednesday 31 October 2012

A Halloween Shocker!

For those who get their knickers in a twist over a barcode on a red car flashing by at 200mph, this is going to come as a terrific shock. I warn you, if you are of a fragile disposition, look away now!

Being half-term, I was out with the little Ps today and came across this ... in plain sight!


Appalling, isn't it? And the people who brazenly put these on public display are profiting from their evil actions, too. It wasn't the only disgusting item of depravity either. Right next to it was ... this!


Won't somebody please think of the children? Because there were plenty there today. In fact, children were positively encouraged with hefty discounts - pocket money prices, indeed - in a blatant attempt to ensnare our young into seeing this filth and instantly tumbling into a lifetime of addiction.

The evil 'guide' even asked if the little Ps wanted to sit in it! To get a closer look at the obscene markings on the bodywork and earn his paymasters a new recruit, I should expect.

It is the only explanation for this disgusting wall presentation - quite obviously a sick ploy to get round the tobacco display ban.


These people call themselves motor sport historians, or something, but are actually tobacco industry stooges peddling death to our children. 

I'm appalled, so I am. Appalled! Something must be done!

(On a more serious note, 'twas a grand day out. Brownie points to whoever can guess where we went)


21 comments:

nisakiman said...

James Hunt would be spinning in his grave if he could see what F1 has become now. He was the last of the "Gentleman Racers". Out on a bender the night before the race, jump in the car with a massive hangover, and probably still half pissed, win the race by sheer dint of will-power and bloody-mindedness. Ah, those were the days. And every car emblazoned with the logo of one cigarette or other, F1 just ain't the same anymore. All the drivers are "professional athletes" now, with personal trainers, fitness regimes and in bed by nine o'clock the night before the race. Boring....

The Filthy Engineer said...

Have they banned smoking in those cars yet?

david said...

Ah yes, James Hunt....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/8150139/James-Hunt-and-Barry-Sheene-prove-playboys-did-not-always-rule-the-world.html

and one of my favourites...

http://www.pitflaps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/img_hunt1.jpg

When men were men and women were...erm...shiny.

Castle Donington DP?

Bucko TheMoose said...

You should get some taxpayer funding for that exposé. It must be worth at least half a million quid.

SadButMadLad said...

Did you go to Brooklands?

Dick_Puddlecote said...

I hadn't considered that! I'll get in touch with Andrew Black and snout some taxpayer cash for a study. ;)

Dick_Puddlecote said...

You should rename yourself SadButCleverLad. :)

Mark.S. said...

Good pictures, No JPS car ?
Oh and a Happy Halloween.

Dick_Puddlecote said...

The guide - evil that he is - did mention that as one of the previous generation of car, funny enough. In the same era as the 6 wheel Tyrrell.

IIRC, Ronnie Peterson died after an accident in a JPS Lotus, so it was probably tobacco's fault.

nisakiman said...

"IIRC, Ronnie Peterson died after an accident in a JPS Lotus, so it was probably tobacco's fault"


Oh yes, that would most certainly have gone down as a "smoking related death".

nisakiman said...

I just found that documentary mentioned in the first link you gave. It is still available on (shhh, whisper it...) the Pirate Bay. Dunno if the torrent is still active, but I grabbed it and will see if it downloads. Nice pic in the other link too!

Dick_Puddlecote said...

The guy who wrote that Telegraph piece should go to where I did today and see the real dangers people faced down so that he can fly the Atlantic, drive a fast car, and live in a country free of Nazism (kinda).


Booze and fags? Oh perlease.

Michael McFadden said...

Dunno 'bout dis Brooklyns place, though it sounds sorta lahk wheres ah grewzed up. But given the sorry state of today's world I would have had to have guessed "Oz."


- MJM

david said...

Marlboro still sponsor Ferrari, which was the 'Scuderia Marlboro Ferrari' team until last year. They dropped the the 'Marlboro' bit and the bar code when the antis had a tantrum.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jul/03/ferrari-marlboro-formula-one-sponsorship.



Wouldn't it be great if they a had different 'plain' packaging livery at next years Australian GP?

JonathanBagley said...

All except for Kimi Raikkonen, who famously enjoys a drink and a cigarette.
http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa34/kimi-site/Maganelet/1379752picture.jpg

JonathanBagley said...

When did it all start to go wrong Kimi? Great new image upload feature. I did that by accident.

Sam Duncan said...

Marvellous. Of course, if anyone ever wants to race them in a “historic” series, it'll all have to be scrubbed off. Can't have them going around outside like that. Somebody might see...

Even worse than the ludicrous barcode furore was the reaction to the decision a couple of years back by the Lotus-sponsored Renault team to use a livery that echoes the old black-and-gold JPS Team Lotus. No money changed hands (the decision was taken more or less out of spite against a rival Lotus team; yeah, it's complicated, and the Lotus v Lotus saga would take a couple of blog posts in itself) and no tobacco was - or is - advertised. But you should have heard the prohibitionists. It's “subliminal”. It's “glorifying tobacco”. Blah, blah, blah. (It was trying to wrest “Lotusness” from Tony Fernandes is what it was, but as I said, it's complicated...) At least the Ferrari barcode actually was Philip Morris trying not to say “Marlboro”.



Wish I was closer to Brooklands. Looks brilliant. Being an impecunious Jock motorsport fan is no fun. Even Knockhill's a bit of a stretch when you're on the west coast.

nisakiman said...

That was my reaction, too. He writes of Barry Sheene:

" In 2003, his
60-a-day smoking habit caught up with him, giving him cancer of the stomach
and oesophagus."

Smoking? Stomach? Oesophagus? That's a new one on me.

As an aside. the documentary "When Playboys Ruled The World" which I found on Pirate Bay is still an active torrent, and had downloaded when I got up this morning, if anybody else is interested.

Tom said...

Also, each of those tobacco companies had a unique personalized font or appearance to the letters that they used in all their advertising and packaging lettering schemes.


It seems to me that another interesting approach someone could use to keep those unique lettering styles alive and viable would be to create an entire A to Z font available for distribution to computers worldwide.


If so, then everyone would be able to type lettering in the Marlboro, Salem, Benson Hedges, Lucky font-styles.

Tom Orme said...

Nisakiman, Would you be so kind as to tell me how you access the Pirate Bay? My provider (Sky) does not allow access. I'm told they're not the only ones either. Regards, Tom.

nisakiman said...

Tom, I am fortunate to live in a country where silly things like
smoking bans and restricting access to certain websites just doesn't even merit a blip on the governmental radar. I would suggest to you, if you are inclined to utilise sites like Pirate bay (and there are many, offering a diverse range of subject matter), that you invest a small amount of money in a proxy server. Although I have no internet restrictions here, I like to be able to watch ITV and BBC (mainly for F1and footy) online, which with a non-UK IP address I can't do. So I use a
proxy server in UK, which costs me about £6 a month. The same company can provide you with an IP address just about anywhere in the world, and you would have access to any site you care to use, including all the P2P file sharing sites, streaming etc. I use VPNUK (Google it), who are brilliant. If you want any more detailed info, ask DP to forward me a message, with your email, and I'll contact you direct.