Sydney Morning Herald - At last, truth in cigarette advertising

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/at-last-truth-in-cigarette-advertising-20100429-ttkh.html



From January 2012, all cigarettes will be sold in plain packages. No logos, no shiny finishes, no bright colours, no pretty pictures. Instead of reassuring and persuasive brand imagery, graphic health warnings will dominate the pack. The tobacco industry has long acknowledged the huge importance that packaging has within the marketing mix. In 1995, a tobacco industry executive summed it up perfectly, ". . . if you smoke, a cigarette pack is one of the few things you use regularly that makes a statement about you. A cigarette pack is the only thing you take out of your pocket 20 times a day and lay out for everyone to see. That's a lot different than buying your soap powder in generic packaging."

Plain packaging is nothing short of a triumph for health promotion and chronic disease prevention. In studies with young people, plain packs were perceived as dull and boring, cheap-looking and reduced the flair and appeal associated with smoking. Conversely, the industry has invested heavily in researching and designing packages that serve to increase the appeal of smoking. In the industry's own words, packs aimed at younger women should be "slick, sleek, flashy, glittery, shiny, silky, and bold". A brown box featuring a diseased lung can hardly be seen as fitting this glamorous description.

__________________________________

Let's hope this spreads like cancer.

this might help, but i think the law of unintended consequences might kick in.

It'll be interesting to see what additional effect this has on the prevalence of tobacco use, particularly among those who consider starting.

I would like to think one of those consequences would be a partial victory over incessant advertising and branding everything under the sun.

Maybe we should invest in companies that make them.

For example:

White bread should go from this:


To this:

It works. I won't eat anything for a week. :rofl:

So many of our problems are overconsumption. The advertising warps our culture by making all the wrong things waaay too important. Wonder Bread is ok if someone doesn't eat much of it. And if they like chewing on cardboard.

We could probably smoke a cigarette or two occasionally and not suffer from it, but they design them to be as addictive as possible and incessantly tell us that we need to have one in hand all the time.

Why'd you have to go and do that?

Teenagers are collecting them like trading cards. While they may find the plain part boring, they find the disease photos fascinating.

Of course the hypocrites would be against doing such because they love their cars and hate that some people do things they don't like. Kind of reminds me of my fundie sister.

No wonder I am a progressive, I grew up around controlling fundies who will do anything to get you to conform.

It's not as easy to get a drivers license as it is in the US. You have to go through an L plate, a Red P (provisional and green P plate, each with its own restrictions. Takes a couple of years.

Moreover, you can lose it easier, too. For instance, during certain times such as holidays, double demerits apply. There are speed and red light cameras in certain locations- as well as "black spot projects" for particularly dangerous spots.

The permitted alcohol level after you're off of P plates is .05, and random breathalyzer stops in the morning on the way to work occur from time to time.

And the measures are working:



Compare those safety stats per capita with the United States and see what you find (despite having better roads).

but our taxis (and many of our cars) do run on LPG- nearly the entire nation's been set up for that since the Arab oil embargo.

As far as public information campaigns go- I like our anti-hooning one (directed at young males who speed, burn out and drive recklessly, i.e. hoons):

until I found myself working right above a guy's head for several hours unloading a truck. He was one of those guys who could have a cigarette in his mouth all the time (with one eye squeezed shut). For years after that every time I even smelled cigarette smoke for more than a few minutes I got a head cold.

I don't think it was the smoke itself that was bad but the fact that I breathed it constantly for several hours. I am wondering if overconsumption is more of a factor in cigs than anything else.

Curious.

It's never been scientifically proven that smoking causes lung cancer:

http://www.inspire.com/groups/lung-cancer-survivors/discussion/smoking-does-not-cause-lung-cancer/

Smoking Does Not Cause Lung Cancer

(According to WHO/CDC Data)*

By: James P. Siepmann, MD

Yes, it is true, smoking does not cause lung cancer. It is only one of many risk factors for lung cancer. I initially was going to write an article on how the professional literature and publications misuse the language by saying "smoking causes lung cancer"1,2, but the more that I looked into how biased the literature, professional organizations, and the media are, I modified this article to one on trying to put the relationship between smoking and cancer into perspective. (No, I did not get paid off by the tobacco companies, or anything else like that.)

When the tobacco executives testified to Congress that they did not believe that smoking caused cancer, their answers were probably truthful and I agree with that statement. Now, if they were asked if smoking increases the risk of getting lung cancer, then their answer based upon current evidence should have be "yes." But even so, the risk of a smoker getting lung cancer is much less than anyone would suspect. Based upon what the media and anti-tobacco organizations say, one would think that if you smoke, you get lung cancer (a 100% correlation) or at least expect a 50+% occurrence before someone uses the word "cause."

But, you know what has been proven to cause lung cancer?

Birds

Obesit

Inactivity

Pollution

Poor Diet

Do they put that statement on the boxes of Twinkies or the exhausts of automobiles or at the pet store?

For me overconsumption is more of a bugaboo than the product itself.

That's why you should eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, etc. - it's healtier for you.

But then your teeth would break.


Never-the-less... and I say this as a menopausal women who still has her period... I LUVS ME SOME CHOCOLATE, but... I try not to eat it all month long - just when my endorphins need it.

:hi:

it takes, they believe, 3 'hits' to cause lung cancer. He described 'hits' as significant exposure to mutagenic substances. He said we are not yet aware of all the substances which can contribute to lung cancer but that smokers know they have 1 'hit,' and have no way of knowing if they have 2 more. There is no doubt smoking can contribute to the development of lung cancer. There is also no doubt that most people believe there is a much higher rate of lung cancer among smokers than is accurate. Currently, about 10-20% of smokers develop lung cancer.