Great then: a family-owned racing museum gets into trouble with a major from the tobacco industry. Unfortunately, the museum did not survive that.
You hear it (too) often: large companies that are always hungry to become even bigger. As a tobacco brand you have a problem in today's world, because tobacco and smoking have been put to shame. Starting a campaign to promote your product is of course not possible.
Winston Cup Museum
You can also try to be right in a lawsuit. The victim of this is the Winston Cup Museum in Winston-Salem in the United States. This museum opened in 2005 to showcase the great history of NASCAR. In particular the period surrounding the 'Winston Cup'. That was the name of the trophy that the winning driver received. Winston is the name of the best-known tobacco brand of RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company. Fun fact: the 'Piston Cup' from the movie Cars is based on the Winston Cup. Well, to exhibit the history behind the Winston Cup, the museum is called the Winston Cup Museum and that was the case for a long time. It was a nice draw for North Carolina, because the museum attracted visitors from all over the world.
Indictment
In 2015, Imperial Tobacco (ITB) purchased the Winston brand from RJ Reynolds. They suddenly decided that the name Winston had to be protected. The Winston Cup Museum was sued. Initially it seemed like the name was a thorn in the side, but ITB went further than that. Everything with the Winston name on it had to be removed, according to ITB, because 'a third party promotes the Winston brand while they have no right to it'. In a museum that revolves around a Winston racing series, that is a large part of the museum. The owners of the museum did not give in and were very defensive. They maintained this strongly, but ITB appears to have very deep pockets.
Close
In July, the pressure became too much for the Winston Cup Museum and the owners decided to temporarily close the museum to work on their defense. In September, the parties reached a settlement: the museum was allowed to open again, but under a new name. However, it was already too late. The owners were devastated by the long, grueling series of lawsuits that had to be settled and thus lost a large part of their identity. The Winston Cup Museum closed its doors on December 16, 2023 with a 'last round' that attracted an additional 750 people.
According to The Drive most of the Winston Cup memorabilia will be sold through Mecum Auctions at an auction in Florida. The website now redirects to WinCupMuseum.com and it seems that the owner still wants to restart something under a different name. After this story you actually hope that David can make Goliath smell some shit, but for now Goliath has unfortunately been proven right.
This article Race museum in conflict with tobacco giant, must close first appeared on Autoblog.nl.
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