Cigarette packs to have ‘world’s ugliest’ designs

CIGARETTE packs designed with the “world’s ugliest colour and graphic pictures” have started to appear on the shelves of shops in South Wales, six months after new regulations were passed.

In May it became law for all tobacco products – including ‘roll your own’ tobacco pouches and cigarette boxes – to be sold in a ‘standardised’ brown packaging.

As shops sell through their previously colourful stock the drab designs are starting to be sold. Plain packs are covered in a colour known as ‘opaque couché’ and 65% of every product must be covered in pictorial and text health warnings.

In addition to this, no branding is allowed other than the product name in a standardised format and no other trademarks, logos, colour schemes or graphics are permitted. The aim of plain packaging is to make smoking less appealing to children.

Ash Wales’ chief executive Suzanne Cass said: “Young people are the tobacco industry’s target audience and key customers – the next generation of smokers.

“Anything we can do to stop them from becoming addicted can only be a good thing.

“These standardised packs are very important.

“They’re designed to stop young people, who are highly influenced by what they see around them, from taking up this killer habit.

“Tobacco companies know they don’t need to entice adults, who are already addicted.”

The tobacco industry has until May 2017 to ensure that all tobacco products comply with the new regulations.