page_title: Philip Morris International
section_title: Sponsorship
hierarchical_section_title: Philip Morris International / Sponsorship
caption_attribution_description: Photo by Sports Fan taken at Bahrain GP 2006
context_page_description: Philip Morris International Inc. is an American transnational cigarette and tobacco manufacturing company, with products sold in over 180 countries. The most recognized and best selling product of the company is Marlboro. Philip Morris International is often referred to as one of the companies comprising Big Tobacco.
  Until a spin-off in March 2008, Philip Morris International was an operating company of Altria. Altria explained the spin-off, arguing PMI would have more "freedom" i.e. leeway outside the responsibilities and standards of American corporate ownership in terms of potential litigation and legislative restrictions to "pursue sales growth in emerging markets", while Altria focuses on the American domestic market. The shareholders in Altria at the time were given shares in PMI, which was listed on the London Stock Exchange and other markets.
  The company's legal seat is in New York City, yet it does not operate in the United States of America. Philip Morris USA, a subsidiary of PMI's former owner American parent Altria group owns the Philip Morris brands there. Operational headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland.
context_section_description: Philip Morris is a long-term main sponsor of the Formula One team Scuderia Ferrari. The sponsorship is subliminal in the logo these days due to restriction in tobacco sponsorship, but Marlboro-branded Ferrari and McLaren cars won several world titles with famous drivers such as Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. Philip Morris also sponsored several title winners in MotoGP in road racing and Indy Cars. The Ferrari Formula One deal before direct sponsorships was banned was estimated to be worth £45 million a year as well as paying the multi-million salary of Schumacher.
  Despite no longer being able to display the Marlboro logo on Ferrari cars, Philip Morris renewed its sponsorship deal with Ferrari in 2011, 2015, 2017, and 2018 up until 2021. The 2017 deal was reported to be worth $160 million a year.
  Philip Morris's sponsorship of Ferrari was seen visually on the car again at the 2018 Japanese Grand Prix, with the cigarette company's "Mission Winnow" branding. This branding has been seen by authorities as an attempt to flout laws and rules banning tobacco advertising, and it was removed by Ferrari for the 2019 Australian Grand Prix after Australian authorities launched an investigation. Ferrari also decided to remove the branding for the 2019 Canadian Grand Prix and the 2019 French Grand Prix to avoid problems with bans on tobacco advertising.
caption: Marlboro sponsored Ferrari Racing Team on 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix.
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