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charon [soylentnews.org] writes:

The proof is in the packaging. Making all cigarette packets look the same reduces the positive feelings smokers associate with specific brands and encourages quitting [newscientist.com], Australian research shows.

The findings come ahead of the UK and Ireland introducing plain tobacco packaging in May.

Australia was the first nation to introduce such legislation in December 2012. Since then, all cigarettes have been sold in plain olive packets with standard fonts and graphic health warnings [newscientist.com].

The primary goal was to make cigarettes less appealing [newscientist.com] so that people would not take up smoking in the first place. But an added bonus has been the number of existing smokers who have ditched the habit.

Between 2010 and 2013, the proportion of daily smokers in Australia dropped from 15.1 to 12.8 per cent – a record decline [bmj.com]. The number of calls to quit helplines also increased by 78 per cent after the policy change.

Hugh Webb, et al. Smoke signals: The decline of brand identity predicts reduced smoking behaviour following the introduction of plain packaging, Addictive Behaviors Reports, DOI: 10.1016/j.abrep.2017.02.003 [sciencedirect.com]

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