Cigarette Packs to Get a Moving Makeover

How about a white label on your cigarette package with a picture of a healthy lung and an unhealthy lung? That is what the FDA is proposing and the makers of cigarettes are fighting back.

Reynolds American, the maker of Pall Mall and Camel cigarettes, and Lorillard, the maker of Newport have said it is unconstitutional to “confiscate the top 50pc of cigarette packaging and mandate shocking colour graphics”.

The makers will be required to use one of 9 new white labels service ads depicting the effects of smoking over a lifetime.

“These (white) labels are frank, honest and powerful depictions of the health risks of smoking and they will help,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

This practice is not new in North America, as Canada has been using the white label anti-smoking ads for nearly two decades.

So how are these new white label services supposed to get smokers to stop?

- By helping the smoker understand how serious the diseases are that are caused by smoking and the likelihood that they will get them.

- By linking the warning to the smoker’s own experience so that the message is more believable and accepted.

- By motivating the smoker to take steps to protect their health. In Canada an insert is provided with links to help smokers quit, and in Australia a phone number is given.

The FDA is unlikely to bend on this new strategy, and by September 2012, all cigarettes will display the white labels.

Americans have had a chance to comment until proposal from November 10th of last year until January 2011, but June 22, 2011 marks the day that the 9 white label ads will be approved.