Tears as tobacco sponsor quits Salzburg
mainThe festival has just lost 600,000 Euros a year as a result of the withdrawal of JTI Tobacco.
Hold that news.
You mean Salzburg were still taking money from cancer peddlers? Even though it’s illegal in Austria to advertise tobacco products? And now they’re weeping over lost cancer dollars?
Yes, to all three.
Go figure. Here’s the story.
I don’t know if this is still the case, but certainly up until very recently the London Symphony Orchestra had British American Tobacco as a Corporate Sponsor.
The story’s a bit more complex than that. JTI weren’t advertising their wares, just showing their logo as sponsors. A non-smoker saw it, recognised it and it all took off from there, the Austrian govenment basically telling the Salzburger Festspiele they couldn’t have JTI as sponsors any more. HR-S is understandably annoyed; she sys ‘The government refuses to review our funding but make it difficult for us to find sponsors’.
Does anyone reading this know the logo off the cuff?? I certainly don’t.
Japan Tobacco is a ligatured “JT,” well drawn, with the T a step up.
JTI, the international part, is a slightly less distinctive adjustment to the above.
Nestlé is the sponsor the festival really should drop, because that company harms more people, only in an insidious way.
“Hold that news.
You mean [just like London (more precisely The British Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts, the South Bank Centre, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra)] still taking money from cancer peddlers? Even though it’s illegal in [the UK] to advertise tobacco products?”
Yes, go figure indeed.
When I was living in Austria I was staggered by the rates of smoking, especially amongst young people. Each time I commented to anyone about this they just smiled and shrugged their shoulders. Many countries in Europe have shocking rates of smoking and incipient health crises. So, whether or not tobacco is advertised the people will continue with their appalling habit. One of the most unpleasant aspects, for me, was that it was very difficult to escape cigarette smoke – especially on railway stations, any public transport stops or just walking down the streets.