Generic Packaging for Cigarette Packages: Australia's Brave and Aggressive Stance

Absolutely amazing. Australia will be the first country the world to implementing plain packaging for cigarette boxes, eliminating possibilites for cigarettes to be 'glamourised' via fancy colour themes and attractive fonts.

In a gutsy display of commendable public health consciousness dancing in the face of the tobacco industry, Kevin Rudd has announced that beginning in 2012, there will be plain, generic packaging for cigarette boxes in Australia. In her article dated April 30, 2010, Fiona Sharkie put it quite accurately: 'Plain packaging is the show-stopper.' http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/big-tobaccos-coughing-fit-a-big-tick-for-plain-packaging-20100429-tweu.html

So why is it the show-stopper and what effects will generic packaging have on reducing tobacco prevalence rates? The Framework Convention Alliance document on Plain Packaging of Tobacco Products provides detailed reasons why this step will be effective. It states: 'Tobacco packaging has been used for many years to generate evocative images such as luxury, freedom, glamour, status, and masculinity or femininity. Tobacco packaging conveys brand identity through brand logos, colours, fonts, pictures, packaging materials and pack shapes.' (at 1) Indeed, these colours and designs have long since been identified as dangerous tools to penetrate the consumer psyche, encouraging them to identify themselves as 'Dunhill men' or 'Marlboro men' etcetera.

By eliminating the freedom of tobacco companies to design tobacco packs as they please, consumer propensity towards cigarettes is reduced in various ways. For one, tobacco companies will no longer be able to use colours to divert attention from health warnings on cigarette packs. This 'increases credibility' of health warnings. (Id, at 2) Secondly, smokers who identify themselves in terms of social status via certain colour themes on cigarette packs will no longer be able to do so. Wakefield, Germain and Durkin in their 2008 article 'How does increasingly plainer cigarette packaging influence adult smokers' perceptions around brand image? An experimental study' stated that: 'removal of additional design elements produced measurable decrements in smokers' appraisals of the packs, the smokers who might smoke such packs, and the inferred experience of smoking a cigarette from these packs'. Jorge Padilla and Nadine Watson in their 2010 article, 'A Critical Review of the Literature on Generic Packaging for Cigarettes' concluded that progressively reduced design on cigarette packages not only reduced the appeal of the cigarettes, but also reduces the appeal of the smoker him/herself. In their words: ' ... the attributes of the typical smoker of the pack were viewed less positively.' (at 29)

The United Kingdom is already considering the imposition of generic tobacco packaging and at the moment is attracting immense opposition from tobacco companies. British American Tobacco warned that the UK would have a 'huge fight on its hands'. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703422904575039410524001480.html In the face of mounting opposition, it is only a matter of time before the UK will react; especially since Australia has taken this aggressive new stance on tobacco packaging. What do you say, Malaysia? Can we possibly become the second country to implement generic packaging for tobacco products? We would certainly be making a statement, that's for sure, sending a positive public health message to our neighbours. We still have an over 50% tobacco prevalence rate for males. Let's make decisions like a developed nation, shall we? Let's follow in Australia's footsteps and introduce plain packaging. Let's grab this choked-up bull by the horns. The evidence is damning, and the clock is ticking.