Australia: Cigarette Pack Displays 'tempt Quitters'

Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Article Date: 22 Nov 2007 - 16:00 PDT

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According to new research, displaying cigarette packs behind shop counters do tempt would be quitters.

The first study led by Australian researchers found more than a third of smokers who were trying to quit or cut down were tempted to buy cigarettes as a direct result of seeing them on display.

60 per cent of these gave in to the urge, purchasing cigarettes at least once even though they had never intended to buy any.

The research, to be published next week in the international journal, Addiction, also proves that recent quitters are lured back into smoking by the large glossy pack displays.

The findings have prompted health groups to call on governments to make removing cigarette pack displays from sight in the retail environment an urgent public health priority.

The study, led by Professor Melanie Wakefield of the Cancer Council Victoria, aimed to assess the extent to which cigarette pack displays in retail stores stimulate impulse purchases of cigarettes.

Prof Wakefield said, "The importance to the tobacco industry of cigarette pack displays in the retail environment has gained in recent years, as traditional electronic, billboard and print forms of tobacco marketing are restricted."

"Far from being a benign marketing practice, our study illustrates that cigarette pack displays in retail stores do trigger impulse buying of cigarettes among smokers, even those who are trying to quit, every time they visit a store.''

She said the tobacco industry marketing tactic of creating colour-coordinated power walls of cigarettes at the point-of-sale may also tempt recent quitters to relapse.

"More than half of long-term smokers will die of a smoking caused-disease, so in light of these findings we urge all jurisdictions to develop legislation to remove tobacco displays from sight in retail stores.''

http://www.ash.org.uk