( CNN ) -- Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo has dismissed claims that his team 's cars carry subliminal tobacco advertising as `` ridiculous . '' Reports last week quoted several health professionals as suggesting the red , white and black barcode on Ferrari 's Formula One cars and Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso 's overalls were a link to Marlboro cigarettes . Tobacco advertising in F1 was outlawed in 2005 , yet reports claimed a spokesman for the European Public Health Commissioner said the barcode constituted potential subliminal marketing . The Times newspaper quoted John Britton , a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians , as saying the barcode resembled the lower half of a packet of Marlboro cigarettes , and that it was `` creeping branding '' . Under a law passed in both Britain and Brussels in 2002 , it is an offence for a tobacco company to sponsor a sporting event . Phillip Morris , the owner of Marlboro cigarettes , is a long-standing sponsor of Ferrari , but Montezemolo has described the stories as `` pointless . '' He told Ferrari 's official Web site : `` Frankly , I find this argument completely pointless and it is verging on the ridiculous to claim that the color red or a graphic design which shows a bar code could induce people to smoke . `` At a time when , on the other side of the Atlantic they are fighting to provide a more equal health service , in the old continent of Europe , so called experts are racking their brains to come up with theories that have no scientific basis : I think there are more important matters to think about than a bar code . `` Therefore , it 's best not to waste any more time replying to this sort of nonsense or to those who are instrumental in wanting to stoke up the story . ''
Ferrari dismiss claims they subliminally advertise cigarettes as 'ridiculous ' Health professionals suggested the barcode design on their cars promoted Marlboro . The company has been accused of using subliminal advertising to promote cigarettes.