Not even showing the product’s packaging is a nice touch.
It’s the same in the UK and a few other places.
And Australia, with packaging that all looks the same too
And if you still want to buy them they cost a stupid amount (I just checked - £15 in Tesco for 20 B&H!), plus there’s a huge illustrated message on the packet about illness and death. I can’t fathom why anyone still smokes.
I truly do not understand why anyone starts it. It doesn’t provide relief, it just makes you MORE anxious and frustrated when you can’t smoke right away.
I made a conscious decision to start smoking in highschool because all the cool people smoked. I think it was Andrew Dice Clay that finally pushed me over the edge to start. I thought he looked like such a badass smoking cigarettes.
Honestly though, if this is what got you to start, then you already wanted to. This should be viewed the same as the mullet.
Like I said, he pushed me over the edge, but all the cool people in movies smoked, Joe Camel was cool, the Marlboro Man was cool, Hollywood and the tobacco companies made it look really cool. And yes, Clay has not aged well, but his humor and attitude were pretty cool in the 90’s. He used to do all sorts of cool tricks with cigarettes and zippo lighters, and he just made it look really cool. It was while watching The Adventures of Ford Fairlane when I remember making a conscious decision that I was going to start smoking. That was right after watching Harley-Davidson and the Marlboro Man movie.
Edit: here’s a couple pictures from said movie, since it’s a very different aesthetic than what you found. Look at that cast!
I really LOVE not showing the flashy packaging, that shuts off much of the monkey brain. I’d love to read a study that went into what effect that has on smokers.
In Europe packs are required to have medical photos of their long term effects on the front (black lungs, people hooked up to machines while getting cancer treatment looking like death, that sort of thing). I kinda like that it’s displayed prominently in that case. I have no clue if it works, but over all I think there are less smokers now in general, at least in my personal experience. So it might? Who knows…
We have this in Canada too. I see them littered all over the place. Its not terribly effective.
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Don’t assume it’s the same for everyone as it was for you. I would bet there is at least some noticeable percentage that quit because of this, or at least helped by this, but if that’s 4% or 25%, I haven’t the faintest.
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Probably zero effect. Smokers continue smoking regardless of everything thrown at them because it’s ridiculously addictive. But you’re right, it would be interesting to see the actual data.
Smoking rates in NZ have reduced markedly and this is one of the many actions we’ve taken as a nation to get the numbers down. I’d think it has an effect thou probably more on reducing uptake
I think it’s probably the rising cost and the increased outcast status of smokers that has had the biggest impact. That and vaping being an outstanding cessation method. It’s really inconvenient being a smoker now.
Sure. But you said “zero impact”.
I also said “probably”. Who got who now? Gotcha!
Touché :o)
The ultimate goal is to prevent people from starting. Cessation is a secondary goal, and always has been. Because it’s much much easier to intercept an addiction before it starts.
That’s what this sort of display is trying to do. It’s not going to deter current smokers, because they already know what brand they like. But it will be very effective at stopping new people from starting.
Makes sense.
True, but I think the main point of plain packaging is to prevent people from becoming smokers to begin with.
I dunno. How many people start smoking because they were in the shop and thought “go on then, I’ll try some”?
I’d wager most people start in school, taking it up from peer pressure courtesy of that six foot 14 year old with a tash who looks just old enough to buy them at the corner shop, and then keeping that habit up throughout their life.
Maybe it stops people relapsing, but for most smokers you could put them on the other end of a minefield with barbed wire and they’d still want them.
That said, the smokers at work have pretty much all swapped to vaping now, purely out of cost. £15 for a pack of fags is a big ask, when you can get a bunch of disposable dodgy vapes for much less.
As someone who smoked for a long time and quit about 5 years ago, the price is what definitely pushed me to quit.
Honestly, I’d love to see this be the case for all products. The packaging has no effect on the quality of the product. Give me a name, description, and what’s in it and let my logical brain only make the decision. I am pretty far away from advertising where possible, but you can’t get away from it while shopping, which is likely the place where it has the largest effect.
My only worry would be accidentally fetishizing it. I can say I always wanted to go past the bead door in the movie rental place just to see what was on the other side
Looks very similar to Canada. Just different prices.
Different currency too, or so the legend goes!
Did this change? Many years ago I visited Vancouver and all their tobacco had graphical imagery of throat cancer and related conditions on the outside wrapper.
Depends on the province. Health is provincial jurisdiction, so things will vary. In MB, the packages have the graphical warning on the packages, but the stores all look like this (no packages on display).
Thank you. Very interesting.
Glad to see the world is following Australia on all these anti-smoking trends.
Is it just me or:
- it looks empty
- it also somehow looks like an electrical fuse
I don’t think they’re even allowed to show the packs, so they’re in opaque dispensers. But yeah it does look like an electrical panel from Europe
Wow, $2 for a pack of cigarettes. I’m glad it’s not that cheap here. It would have made it harder for me to quit!
“Where do you keep the unharmful and non-addictive tobacco?”
