CCST suffers the wrath of Rothmans
Rothmans is understood to be furious with advertising agency CCST after the tobacco giant was forced into an embarrassing climbdown over poster and press advertisements for the Royals brand.
The ads for Royals, developed by CCST, launched at the beginning of February and feature three executions. One, called Traffic Warden, shows a tyre with the truncated word “lop”.
Dunlop Tyres complained Rothmans had used its brand name without permission. Dunlop said it would have refused permission to use the name, as it did not want the brand to be associated with tobacco. “You have got to look after your brand,” says a spokesman.
Rothmans has pledged to remove the word from future advertising, but says it is now “unlikely to use the execution in the future”.
A Rothmans spokesman says: “It is standard practice to ask permission, but this one slipped through the net. In hindsight we should have asked Dunlop’s permission.”
He would not comment on whether Rothmans had unleashed its fury on CCST. However, he adds: “All agency relations will carry on. This is not a huge issue.”
