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Post by smithy777 on Oct 16, 2022 21:14:24 GMT
Hi The two white Rothmans Bugs are advertised at Mathewsons classic auctions to be auctioned this Friday looking good video and all to be auctioned as a pair.
Regards Smithy
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Post by rogeru7 on Oct 17, 2022 13:46:25 GMT
Are there any Rothmans pictures in period of these 2 cars as I have never seen any adverts with them displayed
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Post by madandbad on Oct 17, 2022 18:00:29 GMT
i have never see any photos of the bugs advertising Rothmans you would think there would be advertising photos so is it a myth
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Post by cdb15 on Oct 18, 2022 22:58:24 GMT
i have never see any photos of the bugs advertising Rothmans you would think there would be advertising photos so is it a myth No, not a myth.
If you use the search facility and enter 'rothman bug' you will find a load of posts showing that there were at least 18 non-standard colour Bugs produced for commercial advertising purposes, including black and lime green as well as white. You'll also discover that this particular pair were advertised for sale in 2018, and again in 2019, so I presume there were no takers then and now either the owner has given up trying to sell, or has died and this is an estate sale.
You can also check out the "Rothman Bugs" Facebook page, I presume set up by the former owner, which has a press clip of one of the Cape Fruits Bugs. It also details the purchase by Carreras, owners of the Rothman brand, who actually used the cars to promote the "Cambridge" cigarette brand, not Rothmans per se.
You'll also find mention of these Bugs in Elvis Payne's book "The Reliant Motor Company", on page 78.
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Post by cdb15 on Oct 20, 2022 11:56:44 GMT
Just to add a few comments about the promotional Bugs...
An advert was placed in British Classic Cars Review on 21 Dec 2017 for AME 192H. I can't find a way to replicate the screen shot here as the filesize is too big for this Forum, so I've cut and pasted as follows:
<<
For Sale – bond bug 700es 1970 rare rothmans bug 1 of ...
£8,995.00
bond bug 700es 1970 H reg rothmans cigarettes bug 1 of 6 used in white registration numbers from AME 191H to AME 196H only 3 known to exist was used back in the day to promote cambridge cigarettes around holiday resorts and drivin around by the glammed up guinee girls where you could win fags and prizes and green sheild stamps ! the bug is in very good condition throughout it looks as nice as it does in the pics has the odd mark as you would expect but overall a nicely presented car thats just come out of storage and been refreshed, was the subject to a body off restoration 10+yrs ago and hardly used the engine 700cc and running gear is all excellent and it runs and drives nicely,the chassis has never been welded and the original interior with bond logos is still in good condition. >>
If you look at the information on the Rothmans Bugs Facebook site, you'll read that the white Bugs were supplied with a black roof, but otherwise just white, and Carreras then applied the promotional stickers (did they have vinyl wrap in those days?!). Now trade dress, as it's called in the trade, is very important intellectual property for brand-based products (having worked in British American tobacoo years ago I can tell you the branding is often the only thing that differentiates what's actually in each cigarette!) so it's highly likely that Carreras would have removed all of the branding before the cars were sold.
This would be to ensure that anything attracting adverse publicity that happened to the cars subsequently (serious crash, used in crimes, smuggling drugs etc) could not be associated with Carreras and could not expose them to any legal liability costs. This would explain why there are no photos around of the cars in the Rothmans logos. Unless any individual happened to take his own snaps seeing the cars out and about, the copyright in any official photos in adverts and things like press releases would certainly be held by Carreras, and such photos would be very tightly controlled.
Of course, this was all back in the 70s, over 20 years before the internet and almost 50 years before social media, so control of the pix was very easy - prints and negatives and that's it. By the time the internet came along in 1995, most of this material would have long since been consigned to the corporate archives. Carreras itself was subsumed into Rothmans in 1972, and then Rothmans International plc was subsumed into British American Tobacco in 1999, the same year as the Cambridge brand was finally dropped. If any of you out there actually do have any photos of the cars in trade dress, they will be extremely rare and worth a bob or two to collectors.
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Post by Stiffy on Oct 21, 2022 10:57:00 GMT
I believe they were purchased by carreras who then had a change of mind. The whole exercise was to promote the brand and give away cigarettes at seaside resorts.
We have repeatedly over the last 30 years put out pleas for photos of the stickered up cars at resorts and none have ever appeared. I know cameras and taking snaps was not as big as it is these days with mobile phones etc but surely some would have been taken.
Martin Boddy who restored one of these Bugs in the 1990s contacted Rothmans who couldn't help. Im pretty sure they were resold back to either Reliants or a dealer. I will dig out martins old details on this. Sadly Martin is no longer with us but the Bug Club named a trophy after him.
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Post by jefferdp on Nov 14, 2022 11:58:35 GMT
Gent's
Really interesting stuff on these cars, I enjoyed the read. Dean.
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