In the near future it may become an issue, with warnings against smoking, which is printed directly on the individual cigarettes. A large study at James Cook University in Australia, indicates that these small warnings are much more effective for smoking cessation than the very flashy eerie warnings on the outside of cigarette packets, as the australian citizens have had in many years.
It can for example be a scary warning, and a picture of a pair of coal-black lungs, while small messages on the cigarettes is more mundane. Here the printed text on each cigarette have simple messages like for example ‘all colors on your fingers’, smoking causes bad breath’ or ‘smoking makes your teeth yellow’.
It writes multiple media including The Guardian and the 7 News.
And here you can also see the press release about the study at James Cook University website.
saying Here the lyrics: You don’t need me any more – start your quit smoking plan today. (Photo: James Cook University)
Researcher Aaron Drovandi from James Cook University in Queensland, Australia has spent more than 2000 smokers and non-smokers in his study, where he tried to examine the effectiveness of the current scary warnings in relation to the new proposal with more simple messages on every single cigarette.
the Study pointed out that most smokers have become less sensitive and impressionable, with a view on the scary images were introduced on cigarette packets in Australia in the year 2010. Although some smokers still find them daunting, expressed most smokers in the study, they had a low afskrækkelseseffekt.
‘It is due to the many repetitions of the same images. If you look at a terrible picture, it will usually have an effect. But when you have seen the same picture many times, losing the image its power, explains Aaron Drovandi to the Guardian Australia.
Here is an example of a skrækbillede of a black lung on the front of a cigarette pack in Australia. Thus, it has been in operation since 2010. Photo: James Cook University
the new proposal with the small mundane text on the cigarettes on cigaretternes price, or about what you can buy instead of cigarettes, that smoking causes addiction, how many minutes you lose in life and so on, was received much more favorably by the experimental group. They actually had twice as much effect compared to the known scare-pictures.
this tells the texts that cigarettes contain addictive chemicals. Photo: James Cook University
the Extra Leaf has contacted Niels Them Kjær, who is project manager for tobaksforebyggelse at the Danish Cancer society. He looks with great interest on the research results from Australia:
– It is an interesting proposal. I have not heard of it before. And I agree that people are becoming immune to seeing the same warnings against smoking again and again. It is important that one constantly renews warnings. And here is a significant renewal with the warnings on the actual cigarettes, says Niels Them Kjær, and adds:
– On the other hand, begins the tobacco companies to make cigarettes more smart, so they instead to be plain, get great patterns on the actual cigarettes. So it is a little game of cat with mouse.
Niels Them Kjær will in no way exclude that in the future will also be able to see the kinds of warnings on the actual cigarettes in Denmark.
