Aucklanders: Plain packaging won’t put consumers off buying cigarettes

Aucklanders don’t believe that plain packaging for cigarettes will have the effect the Government is looking for.

Last week, Associate Health Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga announced the Government’s plan to implement plain packaging of cigarettes to try to stop people smoking.

Plain packaged cigarettes will remove any current brand logos and will instead feature only the picture of the effects of smoking, such as a graphic photo of mouth cancer.

Australia was the first country to introduce plain packaging in 2012, and recently the UK and South Africa have decided to follow the same path.

The news came shortly after it was revealed in the 2016 Budget that tax on cigarettes is also set to increase 10 per cent annually for the next four years.

Branding and logos on cigarette packets is a powerful marketing tool that attracts young people, according to the website of lobbyists Plain Packs New Zealand. It is believed that removing logos from the packaging will help reduce the number of smokers taking up the habit.

In the wake of the decision to move to plain packaging, Te Waha Nui asked Aucklanders if they think plain packaged cigarettes will stop smokers smoking, and found most thought it wouldn’t have the desired effect.

Watch here to see what the public had to say about the new initiative. Video: Zephaniah Steele