Tobacco companies have long recognized that the package is a highly valuable marketing space. The pack is used as a tool to advertise images of glamour, sexiness and health. Young women are targeted with cosmetic-like packages that feature descriptive words such as “slim” or “delicate”, which play off body image concerns. These marketing strategies entice new users and discourage smokers trying to quit. Youth are a particularly impressionable population and this target group is what the tobacco industry is banking on.
Plain packaging is gaining tremendous international momentum and has been adopted in Australia, France, and the United Kingdom. It’s time for Canada to join and put an end to tobacco marketing.
With partners in the Canadian Coalition for Action on T0bacco the Canadian Cancer Society is hosting a site that gives you the opportunity to encourage the government to move forward with plain and standardized packaging of cigarettes. Please add your voice and say Yes to Plainplacks
