Tobacco ads have been banned in many countries for years, but Big Tobacco is finding ways to get around the rules - like partnering with Formula 1 to punt their new products to a global audience. Could South Africa's new tobacco bill put an end to racing on our screens?

The car sported a striking wavy polka-dot design in papaya orange and ocean blue on each side and the front wings.

But its most prominent feature was the logo for the e-cigarette brand Vuse splashed across the design.

In November 2023, Formula One (F1) team McLaren revealed their newly branded racing car, featuring a paint job by the Saudi Arabian artist Nujood Al-Otaibi ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that month.

For the past three years, artists like Al-Otaibi, who has a hearing problem, have shown their work through British American Tobacco's (BAT) "Driven by Change" initiative. By partnering with McLaren and Driven by Diversity, they want to make motorsports accessible to everyone, they say.

The catch is that their designs are used to promote a BAT product - in this case its e-cigarette brand Vuse. Putting a bright spin on tobacco - even for non-traditional products such as vapes - is an old industry trick.

E-cigarettes, or vapes, are electronic devices that heat a nicotine-containing liquid to produce a vapour the user inhales. Nicotine, which comes from tobacco leaves, is the drug that gets you hooked on tobacco products like traditional cigarettes and...