Tobacco marketing
Tobacco
advertising is a major factor in
encouraging young
people to start smoking. We think there should be
restrictions on all forms of tobacco marketing
aimed at getting people to start smoking, especially young
people.
With tobacco displays soon to be
phased out across the UK, cigarette packs have become even
more important to the tobacco industry.
Our new report, The Plain Truth, shows
how cigarette packaging can have a direct impact on young people's
smoking behaviour, and how this can mislead them on the health
harms of tobacco.
Read our report
Find
out how you can help
Plain packaging
Tobacco companies have used package design as a marketing tool
to make products more attractive, acting as a 'silent salesman' for
tobacco brands. Making all cigarette packs completely plain -
showing only product name, brand, and health warnings - would
stop them from doing this.
In polling carried out in 2011, we found that one in four young
people that were regular smokers judged one brand to be
healthier than another when presented with two different branded
packs - the reality is that all cigarettes contain the same toxins,
tar and carbon monoxide that lead to half of regular smokers dying
prematurely from smoking-related diseases.
We think plain packaging would help to save lives by:
- preventing the packaging from being used to advertise the
product
- making the the packaging less attractive, particularly to young
people
- increasing the effectiveness of health warnings, and
- ensuring that smokers aren't being misled about some brands
being less harmful than others.
Australia will be the first country
in the world to introduce plain packaging from December 2012
- we want the UK to be the first in the Northern hemisphere to
take this bold step.
The Department of Health in England has launched a consultation
on the packaging of tobacco products, and we're encouraging people
to show their support for plain
packaging.
For more information, email us at policy@bhf.org.uk