Cancer Research UK Campaign For Standardised Tobacco Packaging Products
Every year in the UK 207,000 11-15 year olds take up smoking – that’s 570 children every day! Addiction keeps them smoking into adulthood, where it then kills one in two long-term users. Since tobacco advertising became illegal in the UK in 2002, tobacco companies have invested a fortune in branded packaging to attract new smokers. Most of these new smokers are children, with more than 80% of smokers starting by the age of 19.
Our video showing how children respond to branded cigarette packs gives you an idea of how powerful this glamorous tobacco packaging can be: www.cruk.org/standard-packs and there is strong evidence that removing glitzy designs from cigarette packs makes them less attractive to children. Plain, standardised packaging won’t stop everyone from smoking – but it will give millions of children one less reason to start.
What does ‘standardised packaging’ actually mean?
Plain standardised packaging means all cigarette packs will look the same. They are packaged in a standard shape without branding, design or a logo:
- Health warnings will remain
- Brand names will be in standard type face, colour and size
- The shape, colour and method of opening the packet will be standardised
- The duty paid stamp will remain with covert markings that show the pack is not counterfeit
- Cigarette packs are also standardised in size and colour
So, rather than having lots of different, glitzy types of packaging like these….
…all cigarette packets will look like this:
About the campaign
Cancer Research UK is currently campaigning for the Government to introduce plain, standardised packaging for all tobacco products – and we need your help!
It’s a sad and shocking fact that every year in the UK 207,000 11-15 year olds take up smoking – that’s 567 children every day (the equivalent of almost 7,000 classrooms or nearly 19,000 junior football teams each year)! Addiction keeps them smoking into adulthood, where it then kills one in two long-term users. But there are things that we can do to prevent this – including taking glamorous branding off cigarette packs.
Since tobacco advertising became illegal in the UK, tobacco companies have invested a fortune in branded packaging – one of the only marketing tools left available to them – to attract new smokers. Most of these new smokers are children, with more than 80% starting by the age of 19.
As parents, you’ve probably experienced being pestered by your kids for a ‘cool’ product with bright, colourful packaging over a boring, unbranded version so you know first-hand how packaging can make a difference – and cigarette packaging is no different. Tobacco packaging is carefully designed for impact and is proven to be attractive to young people.
We want to protect our children by taking this marketing tool away from tobacco companies. There’s strong evidence that removing glitzy designs from cigarette packs makes them less attractive to children, which is why we’re campaigning for standardised packaging to be introduced by the government.
The proposed plans for standardised packaging mean that all tobacco products would look the same: they would be packaged in a standard size, shape and colour without branding, design or logos and with clear health warnings. Removing the glitzy packaging used to lure new customers would give impressionable young people one less reason to start smoking.
You might have already read about this campaign in the news – and that the government is stalling making a decision on this crucial issue. We want them to know they can’t delay when the health of our children is at stake.
We want to protect future generations through this proposal which will prevent young people from taking up smoking, improve their health as adults and stop them dying before they should.
You can the video here:
