Scotland To Become Second Country To Make Cigarette Packaging Plain

Published on Monday, Nov 25 2013

The plans have been described by the Telegraph as “stupid” and “ill thought through” and other media outlets as a “war against people who smoke” but the Scottish government is pressing ahead with plans to introduce plain packaging on packs of cigarettes.
 
This was piloted in Australia last year and seems to have had some success. The ethos behind it is the idea that current packaging of cigarettes is attractive and designed to get people to buy.
 
With the dangers of smoking being reported all the time, this is something that is seemingly at odds with the government’s apparent desire to maintain the health and happiness of its citizens.
 
The Scottish government has thus decided to follow on the heels of the Australians and debut the scheme in 2014/15.
 
BBC News quotes Michael Matheson of the Scottish Government as saying:
 
“”I am determined to see Scotland remain at the forefront of those countries committed to bold action to reduce the harm to our health caused by tobacco.”
 
“To build a generation free from tobacco, it is necessary to restrict the imagery and design that tobacco companies use to pull in another generation to use these addictive and lethal products.”
 
So, what are the implications for this likely to be? Plain packaging is not likely to perturb long term addicts but the evidence is there that casual smokers and youngsters who might otherwise have started smoking will resist.
 
Packaging is such a powerful thing, with marketers putting in much research in terms of colours, textures, fonts and styles to make their products as appealing as possible.
 
The tobacco industry is no different.
 
It will be interesting to see what happens when the scheme launches in 2014/2015.

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