Anti-smoking group hopes we copy Aussie cigarette packaging
Posted August 15, 2012 6:34 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Australia has made a landmark decision regarding cigarette packaging. All logos and branding are being banned on packs of smokes. Instead, everything will be a uniform olive colour with graphic anti-smoking images around the package.
An anti-smoking group in BC is hoping the ruling down-under will spark a new international standard.
Errol Povah, president of Airspace Action on Smoking and Health, believes making cigarette packages uniformly boring and frightening will have teens thinking twice about wanting to have that first puff.
“The message [tobacco companies] try and convey is smoking is sexy, glamorous and macho, and it’s all these wonderful things that teenagers, and even pre-teens, aspire to,” says Povah. “By eliminating that, you take away that attraction.”
He notes Canada used to be a world leader in tobacco prevention, as we were the first country to use graphic anti-smoking photos on cigarette packs.
Povah expects Australian packaging will be copied by other countries, including Canada, in the coming years.
