Australia is great in regards to cigarettes. On all packets, it shows gruesome images of what happens to you if you smoke, all labels are black with a standardised white text, so no brand recognition. They're all behind a blacked out cabinet too.
On all packets, it shows gruesome images of what happens to you if you smoke
Which I believe does more harm than good. I know plenty of smokers who get through a pack a day; do you think this is more likely to inform smokers about health risks that they're not already aware of, or is it more likely to desensitise them to these risks?
I'm also curious to know who behind this plan doesn't remember being a 10-year-old and being fascinated by everything disgusting.
The entry point for new smokers is a little older than 10. I think it's more like the early teen years. At that point, I think the "gruesome is cool" phase has abated a bit. Besides, the attraction towards gruesome has to war with young people's preference for sweet tastes. There is nothing sweet about the smell of cigarette smoke. It's incredibly bitter and acrid smelling. The smell was one major reason I never tried tobacco despite both my parents being smokers.
To catch young people in their market, I think tobacco companies focus more on teens' need for social belonging and defining their identity.
As someone who used to smoke "Black Death" cigarettes, I'm inclined to disagree. Perhaps they should put Goatse on each pack, and then people wouldn't be inclined to carry the packs around.
Man, you would think that almost ghoulish imagery in the URL you posted would keep people from buying cigarettes, but I imagine people still buy them in droves nonetheless. I like that at least the Australian government doesn't cave to the Tobacco companies.
Addiction’s a bitch. I don’t smoke but I tend to eat too much with predictable consequences I know full well about. It is possible for me to keep my eating in control (I have for nearly six months now and am very proud of that) but that demands tons of strong, strong, strong willpower. It’s exhausting and I will have to keep that will strong for the rest of my life.
A bit offtopic but overeating depends a lot on types of food you consume.
Removing hunger inflicting components from your diet may make not overeating a matter of habit rather than of willpower.
Changing my diet helps a bit. (It keeps my weight more or less constant if I’m really strict about it. At the moment I still want to lose weight, though.) But since I do actually love eating pasta changing my diet in such a way also requires a lot of constant willpower. I don’t see a lot of difference to plain old calorie counting. I try to do both, though – eat healthier and different things (with the occasional pasta day to keep me happy) and count calories.
Counting calories and constant monitoring (for rewards) are the two cornerstones of my current weight loss (and it works) but I very much try to sneak a better diet in and I also really should start doing more sports.
I don't smoke, but I don't think that imagery would stop me buying cigarettes if I did. I know how horrific the potential consequences of riding a motorcycle or driving a car look, but I still do that. The insides of even a relatively healthy old person won't look particularly pleasant either.
The fact is, people will be aware that not everyone who smokes ends up looking like those images, which will help them ignore them; "It'll never happen to me", regardless of how likely it actually is.
I smoke and know a lot of people who does as well, and I can confirm that these imagery has little to no impact on smokers. I believe it might affect young people who are about to become smokers, but I seriously doubt it.
It's an addiction after all, and I doubt if you wrapped any other drug (cocaine, meth, etc.) in a bag with these images drug-addicts would stop buying. Most likely, the anxiety of seeing something so horrific would make a drug-addict use more substance to escape from yet another worry.
I'm not into conspiracy theories, but in this case, I believe governments make too much money through cigarettes to really want to help people quit. These measures are just to make them look morally correct.
Young people about to become smokers are not likely to wake up one morning and say, "hey, I'm going to start smoking today. That display is nice, I'll get that kind." The ghoulish advertisement probably makes them think twice about starting, but that action happens far away from where the advertisement actually is.
I'm convinced it's much more complicated than simple advertising. There's "peer pressure" effects, to be certain. Not the kind of peer pressure that D.A.R.E. warns you about ("hey, smoke this, everybody's doing it. you want to be cool, right?").
If you're a teenager (or college student - I started in college), it's probably more of a network effect. Hang out with people who smoke, and you're more likely to smoke yourself. After a few beers (or other inebriant of their choice), maybe it won't be so bad. Have a cigarette. Huh, nice buzz. Don't worry, I'll only smoke when I'm drinking. Before you know it (I know this isn't everyone - some people can stay social smokers just fine), you're buying a pack in anticipation of a night out. School starts stressing you out, maybe cigarettes will help. And they do, for a short period of time: a few minutes outside clearing your head with a pleasant buzz.
Of course, eventually you don't get that buzz except for the first one of the day. And for heavy smokers, they don't even get that. But it's hell if you try to quit, even with patches, gum, chantix, whatever.
I've only smoked for five years, but I've tried to quit eight times. If people ask me for cigarettes, I don't give them out - I don't know if they're in the starting stages of the addiction or not. And I'm not about to help someone else get addicted to these damn things.
That's been my experience as well. I started because people around me started. I knew full well the potential health risks, the cost, etc., but figured I could stay a social smoker. I couldn't, and I smoked a pack a day for over three years now.
I haven't bought a pack in two weeks now, mainly due to switching to e-cigarettes. If you're interested in quitting, the e-cigarettes worked better for me than the gum and patch. Don't know how long this will last (hopefully won't buy another pack ever again), but it's not been nearly as excruciating as quitting any other way.
See: http://www.google.com.au/images?q=australian+cigarette+packa...