United Nations prompted to take action following the Davidoff/UNESCO incident
Saturday, 17 July 2010 08:30
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As direct consequence of the Davidoff/UNESCO incident that took place in 2009, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) requests "a review of the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Programme to ensure that no [tobacco] industry-sponsored person represents the United Nations." In 2009, opera singer Monserrat Caballé, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, accepted a cheque from the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in spite of the clear instructions from the Director General of UNESCO that such tobacco money be refused (see our article UNESCO flatly rejects donation from Davidoff Swiss Indoors). The action point submitted to the 53 members of ECOSOC who meet this month in New York further reminds them that "Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers of Peace, are expected to be 'persons of integrity who demonstrate a strong desire to help mobilize public interest in, and support for, the purposes and principles of the United Nations'". This clearly suggests that such expectation was not met in the case of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors donation to Ms. Caballé. In brief, this is yet another Basel gaffe, which will no doubt create great embarrassment for Swiss diplomacy and which doesn't contribute to project a good international image of our country. This shows that the Davidoff Swiss Indoors is becoming, with each passing day, more and more shameful for Basel and for Swiss sport. It's high time that an end be put to this ludicrous and highly damaging situation. Are you listening, Mr. Brennwald? |
Read more: United Nations prompted to take action following the Davidoff/UNESCO incident
Official purpose of the Basel tournament: to distribute samples of tobacco products!
Tuesday, 08 June 2010 06:54
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Davidoff Swiss Indoors official logo The Davidoff Swiss Indoors logo is a registered trademark. The official Swiss trademark registry (SWISSREG) lists tobacco company Davidoff & Cie SA as owner of the logo. Under "Goods and services", the registry record provides the following information: "Publicité, distribution de prospectus et d'échantillons, y compris d'échantillons de produits du tabac" ("Advertising, distribution of promotional leaflets and free samples, including free samples of tobacco products"). This is very interesting: an ATP 500 tournament whose purpose is to advertise tobacco products and distribute free samples of cigarettes and cigars! |
"If they have lips, we want them!"
Teddy bear with the Davidoff logo
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ATP removes official name of Davidoff Swiss Indoors from website!
Sunday, 06 June 2010 21:25
A few weeks ago, we noticed that ATP, the Association of Tennis Professionals, had discreetly removed the Davidoff Swiss Indoors official logo from their website, replacing it with a non-registered logo from which the word "Davidoff" had been obliterated. ATP has now gone one step further and has removed the official name of the Basel tournament from its website, calling the tournament the Swiss Indoors, while the registered name is Davidoff Swiss Indoors! The picture below gives an extract of the current ATP webpage dedicated to the Basel tournament. By moving the cursor over the image, you will see how this extract looked at the beginning of 2010. You will note that all mentions of the brandname Davidoff have been carefully deleted in the more recent version.
Extract from ATP website, page on Basel tournament
The Basel tournament is the only one of the ATP tour whose official name is not used on the ATP website. The ATP must feel very embarrassed by the fact that one of its tournaments promotes tobacco products, notably to the youth. Actually, the global tennis association must recognize that they are even in an illegal situation. Indeed, ATP, as owner of the broadcasting rights for the Davidoff Swiss Indoors outside Switzerland, violates the law in many countries, including European law, when they make arrangement with TV channels for the satellite broadcasting of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors. This unlawful practice must also come to an end, and soon, otherwise ATP will run the risk of being subjected to a flurry of legal actions.
By selling the soul of their tournament to tobacco dealers, the organizers of the Basel tournament are the ones to be blamed for mess in which ATP finds itself with the Davidoff Swiss Indoors. This is really a sad state of affairs and a shame for the city of Basel and for Swiss sport in general!
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