State AGs demand that Formula 1 terminate sponsorships with Big Tobacco

Formula 1 figured out a way around its 2006 ban on sponsorships that promote cigarette use, allowing tobacco companies like Philip Morris and British American Tobacco to use their sponsorships to promote kid-friendly nicotine pouches.

You see what they did there: nicotine pouches aren’t cigarettes.

Genius.

Well, a coalition of attorneys general from 19 states and jurisdictions that includes Virginia AG Jay Jones has fired off an angry letter to Formula 1 and Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the governing body for F1, demanding that the two entities “terminate all existing sponsorship agreements involving those products.”

Good luck with that.

“As the attention of the world is focused on Formula 1 so are the eyes of Virginia’s children. Highly addictive products are making their way into F1 sponsorships and they’re targeting our kids,” Jones said in a statement on the AGs effort today.

It’s a noble cause, to be sure.

Philip Morris sponsors the Ferrari team to promote its Zyn pouches, and British American Tobacco sponsors the McLaren team to promote its Velo brand.

The sponsorships include logos featured on the cars and racing suits of the drivers, including 2025 F1 world champion Lando Norris and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.

Those sponsorships are also promoted on social media to hundreds of millions of followers of the teams and drivers.

In March, 160 public health organizations and advocates began their own campaign to call on F1 to eliminate tobacco and nicotine sponsorships from the sport.

“By sponsoring Formula 1 teams, tobacco companies are seeking to reach the same young people Formula 1 has worked hard to attract. Formula 1 must not be complicit in these efforts. To protect the health of its young fans, it is imperative that Formula 1 act quickly to update its existing prohibition of cigarette sponsorships to include other types of tobacco products, including newer products like nicotine pouches,” the groups wrote in the letter to F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali.