Excellence Through Mediocrity: cigarette packaging

back when i was a smoker, every time i saw an anti-smoking advertisement, i would light one up out of a sense of solidarity. i think that the anti-smoking packaging scheme currently employed by canada and some european nations would have stopped my nascent unionist tendancies cold.

cigarette packages in canada are required to place anti-smoking literature over 50% of the package. the iconography often shows diseased tissues and is quite graphic, as you can see in the link above. inside the packages are tips on how to quit smoking.

the campaign seems to be successful:

44% of smokers say the warnings increased their motivation to quit
58% said the warnings made them think more about the health effects of smoking
62% say the new warnings make the packages look less attractive

from a cnn.com article:

43% of smokers and 40 percent of nonsmokers said they are more concerned about the health effects of smoking because of the new warnings
21% of smokers said they have been tempted on one or more occasions to have a cigarette but decided not to because of the new warnings
27% of smokers said they smoke less inside their home because of the new warnings
35% of smokers and 34 percent of nonsmokers said they know more about the health effects of smoking than they did before the new warnings
48% of nonsmokers said the new warnings made them feel better about being a nonsmoker
17% of smokers said they have put their cigarette pack away at least once because they did not want others to see the warning
24% of smokers said they have at least once put a cardboard sleeve over their pack or transferred cigarettes to another container
18% of smokers said they have on at least one occasion asked for a different package of cigarettes when purchasing them because they did not like the warning on the package first offered
In addition, smokers and nonsmokers identified the warning depicting a diseased mouth and the picture of a lung tumor as most effective at discouraging smoking.

however, as you can see from the fact that people transfer the cigarettes to different containers, there is a niche industry that has grown to serve the needs of smokers who do not want to be reminded of the consequences of their actions. apparently, one french company makes a cardboard sleeve to place over your pack that is emblazoned with the image of che guevara, which i am dying to see a picture of, but i couldn't find it...the closest i got was this picture of che guevara rolling papers: