Daniella Germain

How does increasingly plainer cigarette packaging influence adult smokers’ perceptions about brand image? An experimental study

Background: Cigarette packaging is a key marketing strategy for promoting brand image. Plain packaging has been proposed to limit brand image, but tobacco companies would resist removal of branding design elements. Method: A 3 (brand types) × 4 (degree of plain packaging) between-subject experimental design was used, using an internet online method, to expose 813 adult Australian smokers to one randomly selected cigarette pack, after which respondents completed ratings of the pack. Results: Compared with current cigarette packs with full branding, cigarette packs that displayed progressively fewer branding design elements were perceived increasingly unfavourably in terms of smokers’ appraisals of the packs, the smokers who might smoke such packs, and the inferred experience of smoking a cigarette from these packs. For example, cardboard brown packs with the number of enclosed cigarettes displayed on the front of the pack and featuring only the brand name in small standard font at the bottom of the pack face were rated as significantly less attractive and popular than original branded packs. Smokers of these plain packs were rated as significantly less trendy/stylish, less sociable/outgoing and less mature than smokers of the original pack. Compared with original packs, smokers inferred that cigarettes from these plain packs would be less rich in tobacco, less satisfying and of lower quality tobacco. Conclusion: Plain packaging policies that remove most brand design elements are likely to be most successful in removing cigarette brand image associations.

A Store Cohort Study of Compliance With a Point-of-Sale Cigarette Display Ban in Melbourne, Australia

INTRODUCTION This study aimed to evaluate compliance with legislation which restricted cigarette displays in retail outlets, and to assess prevalence of pro- and anti-tobacco elements in stores pre- and post-legislation. METHODS Three audits of 302 stores in Melbourne, Australia by trained observers who gathered information on point-of-sale tobacco displays 2-3 months before and 3-4 and 11-12 months after the enactment of new restrictions. RESULTS Between the first and second audits, nine stores stopped selling tobacco and three stores had either shut down or were closed for renovations. Of the remaining 290 stores, 94.1% observed the full ban on cigarette package visibility, while new restrictions on price board size and new requirements for graphic health warnings were followed in 85.9% and 67.2% of stores, respectively. Between the second and third audits, another seven stores ended tobacco sales and two stores closed. In Audit 3, 89.7% of the remaining 281 stores complied with price board restrictions, and 82.2% of stores followed requirements for graphic health warnings. Overall, the prevalence of anti-tobacco signage increased and pro-tobacco features decreased between audits for every store type and neighborhood socio-economic status. CONCLUSIONS Tobacco retailers were almost universally compliant with placing cigarettes out of sight and a substantial majority were compliant with regulations on price board size and display of graphic health warnings, demonstrating that such legislation can be implemented successfully.

The long-term decline of adult tobacco use in Victoria: changes in smoking initiation and quitting over a quarter of a century of tobacco control.

Objective: To examine changes in regular smoking prevalence among demographic and socioeconomic groups of Victorian adults from 1984 to 2008.

Adult’s perceptions about whether tobacco companies tell the truth in relation to issues about smoking

The tobacco industry has long denied or played down the risks of smoking, addiction, and passive smoking in Australia.1–3 A survey commissioned by Phillip Morris in 1993 indicated that most Australian opinion leaders and the general public have an unfavourable opinion of the company, even less favourable than that of Americans.4 Faced by a rising tide of litigation, the tobacco industry has attempted to change their image over the past decade to one of a “socially responsible” corporate citizen.5 Unlike in the USA, where the tobacco industry have engaged in extensive corporate image advertising and campaigns directed at youth and parents, in Australia, tobacco companies have focused on …