Was It All Worth It?

The answer to the question posed above - in relation to graphic health warnings on tobacco - would appear to be an emphatic NO.

A new study from the National Centre for Social Research (London) and the Institute for Social Marketing, University of Stirling shows no effect of England's graphic warning labels on cigarette smoking.

The following were the major findings of the study regarding the effects of the graphic warning labels on smoking behavior:

1. There was no observed effect of the graphic warning labels on cigarette smoking prevalence.

2. There was no observed effect of the warning labels on cigarette consumption.

3. There was no observed effect of the warning labels on smoking reduction (measured as forgoing cigarettes due to the warning labels).

Thus, there was no observed effect of the new warning labels on any aspect of smoking behavior.

An abject failure of epic proportion, then.

So what is the current policy of anti-smoking NGOs throughout Europe?

Arguments were presented to increase the size of the pictorial warnings to 80% of the pack, to regularly rotate warning messages to maintain the ‘freshness’ of each statement, and to include information on the packaging about a 'quit line' to help stop smoking.

Make them bigger, spend money on producing more of them, and add something about a quitline. Yep, that'll be the game-changers right there ...

"The only significant change in behaviour was that more adult smokers reported using a technique to avoid seeing the messages."

... even if very few will actually notice.

Do we yet have some way of weaning these monumentally stupid dickheads off of their psychological addiction to failure?

Some gum, or a patch, or something?