Whilst at my daughter’s wedding on Saturday I noticed that most of the smokers were in the age group of the under thirties.
So I thought that I’d do an informal survey of why they’d started smoking, whilst they were refreshed with strong drink (All £2,500 of it!).
ALL of them said they’d been curious by what their mates were doing and had cadged a fag off them. Finding they liked the taste, they’d gone onto smoking their own. Usually buying the same brand as their friend.
The next question I asked was have you changed brands? Most replied that they had. When I asked them why, answers were quite often “The shop had run out of my usual brand”. So then I asked the critical question of why they had chosen a particular brand.
There were two main reasons.
Similar price to the ones I usually smoke, and changed to king size for a longer smoke.
Nowhere was there an answer to my questions that intimated that they were enticed to buy cigarettes because of “glitzy” packaging.
SO ASH CAN STUFF THEIR REASONING OF WHY KIDS START SMOKING UP THEIR CRACK PIPE.
So it's peer pressure that starts them smoking. Same as everything else that kids start or do. Peer pressure is the major driving force for kids, way more than parental pressure.
ReplyDeletepackaging has nothing to do with starting smoking or anything else for that matter.
ReplyDeleteAs younglings everybody loved the Benson & Hedges cinema ads but nobody smoked them, same goes for Panama cigars.
ReplyDeleteI used to think the ad campaigns for Silk Cut were bloody brilliant. But I never bought a packet of Silk Cut in my life. When I started smoking as a kid, I didn't even notice the packets. Price was the driver. Then taste. Packet design didn't come into it.
ReplyDeleteOf course pack design has nothing to do with it. ASH know this as well. ASH just don't like people smoking and want to stop them doing it. Plain packs are just another means of attacking smoking, like hiding packs behind screens in shops.
ReplyDeleteRK.
ReplyDeleteASH won their battle to outlaw smoking in public indoor spaces. But of course to keep themselves on the government funded gravy train, they have to keep inventing further scares.