Australia's Aggressive Anti-Smoking Laws' Efficacy to Unravel in Near Future

6 December 2011 – Australia’s recent passing of an anti-smoking prerogative that implements tough limits on cigarette and tobacco packaging is causing great controversy among companies and the smoking crowd, but the biggest debate yet is just how much impact on smoking it can make.

The days of colorful, trademark designs and familiar brand colors in cigarette packaging in Australia are over. Today, tobacco companies are banned from adding their thematic and memorable colors and even brand logos on the packaging of their goods.

This law follows after another bill has imposed on tobacco companies that their packaging not only contain the generic warning about smoking and health, but also graphic images of the after effects of years of smoking on different body parts. The shock formula of the approach sent waves across the proverbial pond, but fell short of an equally shocking impact that the general aggressive anti-smoking stance of Australian governance wanted to produce. In the long run, smokers didn’t even mind the images.

The new law has upped the ante, however, and is stripping large brands one of their most powerful and all pervasive branding elements. Upon its implementation some big tobacco companies already tried to temper expected effects by announcing that they could not make arrangements in time for their last batches of properly packaged cigarette packs to be released into the market without their colors and rainbows. Many more are vowing to challenge the decision and even pull in international pressure.

Another impact of this bold move is how it should affect other countries with equally tough stances on smoking, such as Canada for instance. Canada was the first country to take that step into the shock factor of adopting grotesque images into cigarette packaging.

But perhaps more significant is the long term effect of the bill. Statistics say that teenagers are heavily influenced by advertising and that through advertising efforts cigarette companies endeavor to link their brands with sexiness, adventurism, and even success. Only time will tell if this move to strip away these factors from tobacco will have significant effects on smoking throughout Australia, which has already been considerably lowered by such efforts as hypnotherapy trends effective in making people stop smoking Melbourne.