Tobacco Product Control Law: A Case Study on Cigarette Pictorial Health Warning Development

Abstract

Cigarette packaging has an important role in advertising tobacco product, when advertisement and sale promotion are limited by laws in countries around the world.  Executives of trans-national tobacco industry foresee the future that cigarette packaging will become the only channel for sale promotion.  World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control recommends that health warning area on cigarette packaging should not be less than 30% but at least 50% or more of the total area on the all sides, and should include color graphic warning pictures.  The objective of health warning on cigarette packaging is to communicate health risk from smoking cigarette.  Health warning is effective in reducing tobacco consumption, by motivating smokers to put an effort to stop smoking or reducing consumption.  Health warning reduces the attractiveness of cigarette package on young smokers.  Thailand is the fourth country in the world to implement color graphic warning pictures on cigarette packs, which result in changing smokers’ value by reminding and refreshing memory of smokers to stop smoking.  Measure on plain and standardized cigarette packaging, which uses the same color on the non-health warning area for all cigarette brands, name of the brand use the same standardized font and size, and majority of the area will be used for color graphic warning pictures indicated by government.  Australia set the trend for implementing plain and standardized cigarette packaging, with several research results indicate that it is not attractive, especially to children and young people.  Plain and standardized cigarette packaging solves the problem completely of preventing tobacco industry to use cigarette pack as a channel to misinform smokers.  Moreover, plain and standardized cigarette package reduces status and role of cigarette pack in communication and attraction.