Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Plain packaging could be every bit as significant in combating the harm caused by tobacco as the advertising ban or the end of smoking in public places. Research has shown that plain packs would make smoking less attractive to young people and will improve the effectiveness of the health warnings on the front and back of packs.

The idea is that, rather than having all kinds of branding to make cigarettes appeal to different people, such as pink packets or long slim cigarettes aimed at young women, all cigarettes and packets will look the same. Cigarette companies use colours like silver to try to indicate that some types of cigarettes are lower in tar and suggest they are safer than other brands when, in fact, this is not true. Plain packs reduce these false beliefs. Health warnings would remain on the packaging and be more prominent without the distraction of glitzy packet designs.

In a wider context, the new tobacco control plan sets ambitions for reducing smoking amongst adults, teenagers and pregnant women. It works at both a national and local level, trying to reshape social norms.

It’s really important that both plain packaging and removing tobacco displays are brought in, because they complement each other. Plain packaging alone would not be enough, because although the branding will be gone, the packets will still be alongside normal products like sweets and crisps, adding to the illusion that cigarettes are not as dangerous as we know they are - killing half of the people who use them on a long term basis.

• 2008: We urged the Westminster Parliament and Scottish Parliament to extinguish tobacco marketing to children. Supporters responded to a Government consultation and wrote to their political representatives about the need to protect children from tobacco marketing. They called for attractive tobacco displays to be covered up at the point of sale in shops, and for tobacco vending machines to be removed to prevent underage smokers obtaining cigarettes in this way.
• 2009: All this hard work paid off when new laws were passed in the Westminster Parliament (covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and in the Scottish Parliament, to get rid of tobacco displays at the till in shops and introduce powers to remove tobacco vending machines.
• 2010: After the General Election, the coalition Government then came under pressure from a campaign backed by the tobacco industry not to bring in the laws passed by the previous Parliament. In June 2010 we mobilised our supporters to write to MPs to underline the evidence and ask that they write to Secretaries of State both for Health and for Business, Innovation and Skills, to bring in these measures. Over 1,300 campaigners wrote to MPs, 200 wrote to local newspaper editors about the issue, and Dr Vince Cable MP received a petition signed by over 300 of his constituents. We also ran a Christmas card action where supporters highlighted the campaign calls through sending a life-saving festive message.
• 2011: On 9 March the Government announced its new tobacco control plan for England, Healthy Lives, Healthy People. This details the Government's commitment and timeframe for putting tobacco displays out of sight in shops, removing tobacco vending machines, and its intention to consult on plain packaging. As policies backed by years of research, much of it funded by Cancer Research UK, our campaigning has made sure the Government has acted on the evidence.

The announcement of a tobacco control plan for England isn't the end of the long fight against the promotion of tobacco – but we've won a big battle. If you would like to be kept updated when we launch our next campaign, please let us know.