Look What They’ve Done to my Brands
Look What They’ve Done to my Brands
Despite the significant health risks associated with smoking, people continue to knowingly choose to do so. I believe that Australia’s new plain-packaging law will not make not make as much as a dent in reducing the number of packs sold. The generic dark brown identical packaging if anything will not discourage people to buy it but rather will allow the companies to save money on packaging and instead invest into another area; for example increasing production of cigarettes. Getting rid of the regular packaging will also get rid of the large warnings and graphic images that usually get printed on it informing smokers the dangers of smoking and risk of lung cancer. This could result in actually increasing demand, because the consumer is not so disinclined to buy it or quit smoking– doing the complete opposite of what was intended by the Australian government. Identical packaging will hurt tobacco companies in the sense that consumers will most likely only purchase cigarettes from the one or two brand names that they are familiar with, reluctant to try any other ones especially if they are all in identical boxes with no differentiation. However, in the grand scheme of things, this does not necessarily mean demand for tobacco as a whole will decrease; people will still smoke regardless.