When a Ferrari drives by, unfailingly, heads turn and the street becomes filled with both gasps of delight and longing. Most people would love to own one of these luxury cars brandishing the Ferrari name. Ferrari has very successfully branded itself over the last few decades as one of the most notorious and prestigious brands in the world. Their stylized horse logo design is instantly recognizable and their signature red paraphernalia is worn proudly by avid car enthusiasts the world over.
Ferrari has unfortunately been the subject of much controversy lately. Ferrari is the only F1 racing team that is still sponsored by a tobacco company. Competing under the name of Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, Marlboro pays $1 billion dollars for the chance to have their brand associated with the infamous Ferrari name. However, in 2003, this sponsorship got a lot more complicated. The European Parliament and Council passed The Tobacco Advertising Directive, which banned tobacco sponsorship of sporting events in Europe. The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro F1 team was caught in quite a predicament and was forced to change the branding of their team.
Ferrari and Marlboro came up with a solution. They created a barcode-like logo design that was printed on their racing cars, team uniforms and other racing accessories. This is where the whole controversy truly started. Many people objected to this logo design saying that the barcode design looked too much like a Marlboro pack of cigarettes especially when seen on a speeding race car.
Here is a picture of the old Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro logo design:
Here is that same Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro logo design printed on their race cars:
Here is a comparison of the old Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro logo design with a Marlboro cigarette pack:
What do I think? Do I think that the bar code design looks like a pack of Marlboro cigarettes?
First of all, I like the old Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro logo design. Even though they had to include so many elements in the logo design, it still looks surprisingly simple. I also think they did a great job at incorporating Ferrari's distinguished stylized horse into this logo design. On the other hand, I don’t like how the barcode logo design looks printed on their racing cars. I suppose that it could be regarded as a great little aesthetic addition to the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro racing cars however, I just don’t see it. It really just doesn’t look like anything special to me and as a matter of fact, I find it kind of ugly. It would have been better if they had included the logo design in its entirety on their race cars.
Do I think that it looks like a Marlboro cigarette pack? Well, this just seems a little far fetched to me. Perhaps it’s because I am not American and because I am not subject to Marlboro advertising every day but I just don’t see the correlation. However, since this logo design has drawn so much controversy, it has obviously been viewed by some people as being a good representation of a Marlboro cigarette pack. I think that from a subliminal advertising standpoint, this is an incredibly clever logo design and that the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro F1 team had found a brilliant loophole.
In any event, the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro F1 team has announced that they will be changing their racing team’s logo design in 2011. Starting on Jan 1st, 2011, the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro F1 team’s new logo design will look like this:
Do I like this new logo design for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro F1 team? Do I still think that it looks like a pack of Marlboro cigarettes?
Compared to the old barcode logo design, I do think that this new Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro logo design looks much more slick however, I am still not a fan. I think that there is a little too much white in this logo design and that it looks unbalanced. Again, I don’t really get it and I don’t think that it accurately represents Ferrari, racing or the Italian culture on which Ferrari based. I also don’t think that this new Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro logo design looks anymore like a Marlboro cigarette pack than the barcode design. Hopefully, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro has successfully avoided further controversy and ill opinions from the public.