Okay, I admit it. It’s a
middle-aged question.
But what’s with a driving simulator in a pub?
Isn’t that sending a very wrong message about drinking and driving?
Maybe this finer point
didn’t occur to the folks at Imperial Tobacco – or maybe they aren’t too
concerned about young adults taking unnecessary risks.
After all, they sent three
teams of Player's Racing Team driving simulators to pubs all across Canada to help
party-goers test their driving skills against those of other party goers in other pubs.
That's 133 pubs. 35 Canadian
cities. 268 nights of drinking-and-driving-and-smoking fun.
From Victoria
to St. John’s, The Player’s Simulator Challenge encouraged contestants to
test their driving skills and win a trip to Laguna Seca California to drive a real formula
Atlantic race car.
The ad in Ottawa’s
entertainment weekly, the X-press, caught my eye. (It might
look like a lifestyle ad for Player's cigarettes - but because it's technically an ad for
the racing team, it's perfectly legal). The Challenge was
coming to a pub near me.
Sure it’s a
student pub, and I’m a little old for video-games, but, what the hey, it’s a
chance to WIN BIG! Six ‘real’ contestants and three media winners will get an
all-expense-paid week-end at the Player’s Racing School later this year. Could I make
the cut?
The simulator is more of a
video-game than a car. Two of these driving games sat side-by-side facing a bright plastic
back-drop in the corner of the pub. They looked a little garish and out-of-place against
the beat-up pool tables and scarred floor – but they sure were eye-grabbing.
In fact, there was no missing
the presence of the crew from Imperial Tobacco. Posters were plastered throughout the pub.
A big sign greeted everyone at the door. There was even a poster in the bathroom. (The posters might also look like the lifestyle ads
for cigarettes. You know, the ones that were supposed to be banned by the Tobacco Act. But
because they're a promotion at the site of a sponsored event, they are perfectly
legal for at least another five years).
Even those who weren't
out for a night on the town got to share in the excitement. In front of the pub, a highly
decorated Player’s Simulator Challenge trailer could have passed for a billboard. (The trailer might look like an outdoor lifestyle advertisement that the
government promised to ban after October 1, 1998, but it’s really part of a sponsored
event, and perfectly legal for another five years).
I’m not very good at
video-driving games. So I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t score very well on the
driving challenge. Nor was I lucky enough to score one of the T-shirts they were giving
out. (The Player’s Polo shirts
might look like the tobacco-brand clothing that the government promised to ban, but
because they’re on the site of an event, they’re perfectly legal for another
five years.)
The winners get their
name posted on the Player’s Web Site (The web-site is apparently also a perfectly legal form of tobacco
promotion).
But –as
Player’s promised – everybody walks away with something. I walked away with a
piece of Player’s ersatz-ID. They call it a ‘hard card’ - and it comes
complete with picture and name. (A free cigarette identity
card!! Does the Tobacco Act REALLY allow that?)
Player’s is becoming a
familiar name in sports-pubs. Imperial Tobacco provides pubs with Player’s driving
and trivia videos to entertain clients, and pays them to display Player’s neon signs.
Pubs are one of the three
areas where tobacco companies are explicitly allowed to advertise (the other two are by
direct mail and in publications with an adult readership of at least 85%). Even when all
the sponsorship restrictions are imposed sometime in the next millenium, tobacco ads will
remain in the partying spots of our college and university kids. |
