Cigarettes look set to soon become a very hard sell in the UK, where new laws that came into effect on Friday mean packaging for tobacco will not only come in standard colours with standard fonts but will also be more than 50 percent covered by graphic images of the damage smoking does.
Bright, shiny ads featuring beautiful, healthy-looking smokers on the ski slopes at Verbier or cruising around Monte Carlo in their convertibles are only a distant memory of cinema goers from the eighties, but smoking has yet to lose all its simmering sex appeal. The big brands still spend large sums of money portraying a stylish and cool image, packaging and branding being a key part of this.
As of Friday, that looks to be stamped out. The revised Tobacco Products Directive decrees that packaging must be standardised with drab green/brown colour background, and the brand name and variant in standardised size and font. That means no more flashy logo and “colours that pop” enticing would-be hipsters on to the smokey, slippery slope.
It will take a few months for the deadly-looking cigarette boxes to appear behind cash desks in the UK since companies are allowed to continue selling old stock for a year, but when they do they are likely to have quite an impact. The new law requires pictorial health warnings on both front and back surfaces of the packs, covering 65 percent of each surface area, and the options are very grim.
The jury is out on when, if ever, we can expect this sort of legislation in Africa. Amanda Sandford, information manager for British lobby group Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), said: “As I’m sure you are aware, it is most likely that the tobacco companies will fight the measure in every country that adopts it.
“However, it’s encouraging that a number of countries in Europe and elsewhere, including Canada and News Zealand, are committed to implementing plain packaging laws,” she added.
I found the mock-ups of what was to come too upsetting to publish. Anyway I am just trying to sell a story, nothing more, nothing less. As yet, I am not obliged to carry a danger warning. – African News Agency (ANA)
