The University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society (CSTS), housed within the College of Community Health Sciences, launched a new online exhibition examining how cigarette companies have used soccer to market their products around the world.
Curated by Dr. Alan Blum, director of CSTS and the Gerald Leon Wallace, MD, Endowed Chair in Family Medicine with CCHS, “Branding the Beautiful Game: When Soccer Met Cigarettes” draws primarily from the Center’s collection and explores the relationship between tobacco promotion and soccer.
Blum said the exhibition shows how tobacco companies used soccer’s global appeal to associate cigarette brands with athleticism, masculinity, national pride and international competition. As restrictions on traditional cigarette advertising increased during the late 20th Century, he said tobacco companies increasingly turned to sports sponsorships to keep their brands visible.
The exhibition traces that history from collectible cigarette cards featuring British footballers in the late 1800s to World Cup promotions, tournament sponsorships and branded giveaways, and also includes internal tobacco industry marketing documents and public health campaigns aimed at removing tobacco from sports.
Featured items include Camel promotions tied to the 1986 FIFA World Cup, Marlboro’s efforts to promote soccer in the United States before the 1994 FIFA World Cup, and soccer-themed campaigns from Newport, Winston and other cigarette brands. Blum said the exhibition also looks at how tobacco companies continued marketing cigarettes through soccer in some countries even as organizations such as FIFA and the World Health Organization worked to make the sport tobacco-free.
Alongside tobacco industry promotions, the exhibition highlights anti-smoking campaigns from the Netherlands, Iceland, Uruguay, Australia and the United States that used soccer to encourage healthy lifestyles and reinforce the message that tobacco and sports do not mix.