British American Tobacco's John Player Gold Leaf, the only known sailing boat to advertise two cigarette brands at the same time, sailed into a storm of controversy last September as it approached Sri Lanka. Billed as undertaking the "Voyage of discovery", the 80 foot racing yacht had left Tower Bridge in London, UK, in mid June with a seven person British crew. BAT's press hype, faithfully reported by most newspapers in Bangladesh (but not Bhorer Kagojsee Tobacco Control 1998;7:228-9), boasted that the "challenging and exciting" 170 day trip would cover 17 countries and three continents, with the ultimate destination being the Bangladesh port of Chittagong in the Bay of Bengal, scheduled for November. BAT augmented the coverage with large colour advertisements in the newspapers covering the story. So all seemed set fair for a straightforward cruise (the boat was not, after all, racing against competitors) to promote cigarettes to . . . [Full text of this article]