Cigarette packaging in olive green to deter smokers

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDApr 6 2011

In a bid to reduce smoking rates in Australia, all cigarette packs will be packaged olive green. Under the new laws to be proposed in federal parliament, all logos will be removed from cigarette packs and brand names displayed in a specific font.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the logos would be replaced with health warnings and graphic pictures depicting the dangers of smoking. These warnings would cover more than 90 per cent of space on the front of the packs, and 75 per cent of the back she said. Ms Roxon said, “We've done a lot of research to ensure that we make the cigarette packs as unattractive as possible…This is about taking away the last opportunity that tobacco companies have in Australia, to try to market their products by making them look luxurious, or pretending that they might be light and better for your health.” She hoped the change would also deter new people from smoking.

Draft legislation and a mock-up of the proposed packaging will be released later today.

Quit Victoria feels this is a good move. “As other forms of tobacco advertising have been banned, cigarette packaging has become the key avenue the industry has to recruit new smokers,” Quit Executive Director Fiona Sharkie said. “Cigarettes kill half of all long-term smokers. They’re not normal consumer products, so we shouldn’t allow them to be packaged as such,” she added.

Tobacconist Vince Harris said the packaging would create confusion for vendors and customers. “We don’t like it. It will make identifying the brand difficult and there will be more time delay and errors [in service]…Health issues aside it’s going to be a problem. It will be confusing because some brands have more than seven varieties],” Mr Harris said. He added that the packaging could also be a “counterfeiters' dream”. Many imitation brands were already on the market, he said. “It will allow the criminal element to move in, which will just cost the government billions,” he said.

A tobacco giant says the federal government may have to pay billions of dollars in compensation to cigarette firms if it brings in plain olive green packaging. British American Tobacco Australia (BATA) - whose brands include Winfield, Dunhill and Benson & Hedges - said the government's proposal would infringe international trademark and intellectual property laws.

“The government could end up wasting millions of taxpayers' dollars in legal fees trying to defend their decision, let alone the potential to pay billions to the tobacco industry for taking away our intellectual property,” spokesman Scott McIntyre said in a statement.

If successful, Australia would be the first country in the world to mandate plain packaging of cigarettes. New Zealand, Canada and the UK have considered a similar policy and are likely to be watching to see if Australia succeeds. BATA has called on the government to cancel its plans for plain packaging and consult with the industry. It argued that alcohol and fast food companies wouldn't stand having their branding taken away from them. The company also claimed plain packaging would encourage a black market in tobacco and counterfeiting.