Australian Tobacco Companies Forced Into Unappealing Cigarette Packaging

Tobacco companies in Australia have some surprises coming, as well as some demands by the Australian government under legislation revealed Thursday that probably won’t make the Tobacco industry very happy.

This move, according to the government, will make Australia the toughest country worldwide on tobacco advertising.

The companies are being forced to remove all logos from cigarette packages and in their place, display graphic images instead, like “cancer-riddled mouths and sickly children” thus taking away one of the tobacco companies’ last way of advertising, by stopping them from putting their logos, text or appealing colored pictures on the cigarette packages.

In their place, brand names can be printed in a small, simple font and the packages themselves will be olive or dull green – this color, the government believes, will not appeal to consumers The new packs are designed to present the least appeal to smokers and they clearly show the horrible effects that result from smoking.

The glamor is gone – this is the clear message sent by the use of this plain packaging – now cigarette packages will only display disease and death and how unglamorous smoking really is.

Needless to say, the legislation has been fought by the Tobacco companies, and legal action has been threatened against the government ever since the first announcement in 2010. There will be a phasing-in over a period of 6 months, beginning in January 2012.

Although Australian smoking rates have been in decline for years, still cigarettes kill 15,000 Australians per year at an annual cost to the country of approximately $31.5 billion.

source: newstabulous.com