Introducing positive messages that complement the graphic warning labels on tobacco packs could help people who smoke feel more confident about quitting and provide them with useful tips, a new University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka study has found.
The researchers asked 27 people aged 18 and over from Wellington and Dunedin who smoked roll-your-own cigarettes for their views on warning labels on tobacco packaging, and the addition of positive messages – such as tips on how to quit – to packs.
Their findings are published in the international journal, Tobacco Control.
Lead researcher Lani Teddy (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāi Te Rangi) from the Department of Public Health says participants in the study felt that including positive information alongside graphic warnings would inspire hope, and give them more confidence to embark on a journey to quit smoking.
One contrasted the positive messages to “the constant battering of the, ‘don’t do this, don’t do that’”, which she associated with the confronting images of diseased body organs used on tobacco packs to illustrate the harms of smoking.
Another commented, “… if you want to quit smoking and you don’t have hope, you have no chance … you need to have hope in order to make change”.
Ms Teddy says the positive labels reminded people of what they could gain by quitting, rather than leaving them with the ‘shock’ aroused by the fear-inducing pictorial labels.
Co-director of the ASPIRE Aotearoa Research Centre at the University of Otago, Wellington, and senior author of the research, Professor Janet Hoek says graphic warning labels have reduced smoking’s appeal to young people, and helped reduce smoking rates.
“Graphic warnings have played an important role in helping to reduce smoking rates. However, people who continue smoking may feel alienated, judged, and disempowered,” said Prof Hoek.
While study participants did not expect positive messaging to galvanise smoking cessation, they felt “being a little bit gentler” could increase the attention paid to information on and inside tobacco packaging.
New Zealand is among more than 138 jurisdictions to have introduced large pictorial warning labels to tobacco packaging. Canada and Australia have also made it mandatory for tobacco manufacturers to include package inserts containing positive tips and advice on quitting smoking.
Professor Hoek says reviewing New Zealand’s graphic warnings, which have not been updated since 2018, to make them more diverse and culturally relevant could also improve their effectiveness and help foster smoking cessation.
“Adding positive messages and tips on quitting could complement the harsh depictions of smoking’s harms shown in graphic images, reduce the negative judgment people who smoke feel, and foster the confidence and the resilience people need to quit for good,” she said.
The research is summarised in a short animation: Let’s Talk Labels, available for publication online, with credit to ST_RY B_X: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co3J7FrTEe4.
The research paper, ‘A hopeful journey: responses to efficacy labels from people using RYO tobacco in Aotearoa New Zealand’ is published in the international peer-reviewed journal Tobacco Control: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40533184/.
A Public Health Communication Centre Briefing on the research is available here – Balancing fear with hope: A more effective way of promoting smoking cessation?.
