Original article
Adolescents' Perceptions of Cigarette Brand Image: Does Plain Packaging Make a Difference?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.08.009Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

To examine the effect of plain packaging on adolescents' perceptions of cigarette packs, attributes of smokers, and expectations of cigarette taste, and to identify the effect of increasing the size of pictorial health warnings on appraisal of plain packs.

Methods

We used a 5 (degree of plain packaging and graphic health warning)× 3 (brand type) between-subjects experimental design, using a Web-based methodology to expose adolescents to one randomly selected cigarette pack, during which respondents completed ratings.

Results

When brand elements such as color, branded fonts, and imagery were progressively removed from cigarette packs, adolescents perceived packs to be less appealing, rated attributes of a typical smoker of the pack less positively, and had more negative expectations of cigarette taste. Pack appeal was reduced even further when the size of the pictorial health warning on the most plain pack was increased from 30% to 80% of the pack face, with this effect apparent among susceptible nonsmokers, experimenters, and established smokers.

Conclusions

Removing as much brand information from cigarette packs as possible is likely to reduce positive cigarette brand image associations among adolescents. By additionally increasing the size of pictorial health warnings, positive pack perceptions of those who are at greater risk of becoming regular addicted adult smokers are most likely to be reduced.

Section snippets

Design

This study used a 5 (degree of plain packaging and graphic health warning) × 3 (brand types) between-subjects experimental design, using a Web-based methodology to expose adolescents to one randomly selected cigarette pack, during which respondents completed ratings of the pack.

Ethical approval to conduct this study was obtained from The Cancer Council Victoria Human Research Ethics Committee.

Procedure

Members of an existing national online panel who were identified as having children between the ages of

Sample characteristics and group assignment

Overall, 1087 adolescents completed the survey, yielding a response rate of 15% of all the e-mail invitations sent. Table 1 shows that neither respondents' demographic characteristics nor smoking experience varied significantly across the different pack conditions. An average of 217 respondents (minimum = 204; maximum = 232) were randomly allocated to each of the five pack conditions, with a relatively equal distribution of the three brands across these five conditions.

Effect of increasingly plain packaging on perceptions

For all brands combined, pack

Discussion

Our study demonstrates that when a cigarette pack is progressively stripped of its color, imagery, and branded fonts, adolescents perceive packs as less appealing. Progressively removing branding from a pack also resulted in less favorable perceived attributes of a typical smoker of the pack, and more negative expectations of cigarette taste. Our experimental findings support previous descriptive research [17], [18], [20], indicating that among adolescents branded cigarette packs communicate

Acknowledgments

This study was funded by Quit Victoria and the Cancer Council Victoria. There are no conflicts of interest for any author.

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