Cigarette packaging

Pictures wouldn't have stopped me when I was a teenager. I already knew what cigarettes could do but my peer group smoked and that was more important. Anyway when you're a teenager you're immortal. If something has a 1 in 3 chance of hurting you then there is a 2 in 3 chance that it won't and you're bound to be part of the 2. Even when I stopped smoking it wasn't for my health but because I was pregnant.

Packaging wouldn't have made any difference to me as my first cigarettes were sold singly from under the counter while I was in school uniform! As you said vq it was important to be in with the in crowd. I gave up smoking after a really bad bought of flu left me feeling to ill to smoke for several weeks and I just though "I don't need to do that any more!"

If advertising just helps a few people to stop and think what can happen to them then I do think it is worthwhile in the end.

When you're a smoker you have a mental block in your head about what it's doing to you. I think the smoking ban in pubs will have made a big difference here; I wonder what the stats are for the number of people smoking now compared to before the ban? I always associated pubs with cigarettes and wanted one as soon as I walked through the door [even if I was going through a non smoking phase]. It's a relief now that I can't smoke there anyway [not that I go into pubs very often]. I feel so embarrassed about the times when I have smoked whilst with non smoking friends..they must have found it horrible.

I enjoyed every cigarette I ever smoked. I never went through a phase of wishing I didn't smoke. I gave up to protect my baby.

If they produced a cigarette that didn't kill and didn't smell quite so horrible (didn't notice the smell when I smoked) I'd be hard pressed not to try them. Even now, after 28 years, I sometimes could kill for a smoke.

I used to think of the next cigarette as I was smoking the first one! I miss the social side of it; met some lovely people when the ban started in Ireland and we'd stand outside pubs chatting to all the other smokers.

I miss the ritual. Taking the smooth, shiny box, flipping open the lid, slipping out the gold paper, feeling the cigarette as I pulled it gently out of the box, the feel of it between my lips, the feel of the lighter and click before the flame, the slight sizzling as it lit and I took the first draw, the holding it between two fingers and the first exhalation.

There is far more to smoking than just getting a nicotine fix and the manufactuers know that. Everything is geared to the total experience.

I remember when the ban first came in reading a letter in the newspaper from a chap who used to go for a quick drink in his local after getting off the train from work, and before going home (a sort of "early doors" type). Although he was a non smoker, he found himself outside in the smoking shelter, because that where the other early evening regulars were, and he missed the conversation!

I started chewing gum as it gave me the ritual of buying a packet, opening it etc but, after chewing gum for several weeks I dislocated my jaw. My dentist said that chewing gum was bad for you . Thought I was going to have to live on mashed potato forever.

omg sometimes you just can't win.

I used to love rolling my own as well. Love the smell of Old Holborn. I chat on the phone once a week to a friend I used to smoke with and we just fantasise about lighting up. Used to have a pretend cigarette next to the computer but, blow me it's not here. It's bothering me now. But I'll never smoke again. I saw some friends last week that I hadn' seen for years and they looked younger than when I last saw them; when I thought about it I realised that they must have stopped smoking since we last met.

By coincidence – I promise I wasn't thinking about it when I started this thread – I've just done the 12 months. I stopped smoking on 1 December 2011. Interestingly I don't miss it at all when I am awake, but it pops up in my dreams sometimes; I inadvertently accept a cigarette offered to me and then get into a state because I have smoked it. (It's probably transferred guilt about something else all together.) I have to say that all the graphic images of diseased lungs and rotting teeth played absolutely no part in my decision to stop smoking.

absent

The packets were very graphic were they not. I would think they could have quite an influence on children, hopefully for the good.

I was a bit surprised that the Australian Government thought about banning anyone born after a certain date, can't remember which, from even being allowed to smoke. I hate smoking with a vengance but I defend the right for people to choose for themselves.

Thanks to your OP Absent I was inspired to search out the completely unused cigarette case given to DH on his 21st Birthday. It is immaculate and very stylish. It is also, of course, designed to contain the standard sized cigarettes of its day. There is no way that today's 'superkings' will fit therein. Back to the drawing board. - nearest thing to a [smoking] icon.

Granny23 , I believe that there is a bit of a market for smoking "memorabilia", I have seen pub ashtrays (with drinks logos) going for an increasing sum. Not sure about cigarette cases, might depend on the material.

Heck; I've got an old pub ashtray in the garage...must bring it back into the house. Mind you, probably more chance of it being broken in here.

POGS the proposal was actually passed by the Upper House in Tasmania (we also have state governments in Oz). I don't know what happened then, it probably faded away like all silly ideas should. Imagine the black market problems and of course the youth would want to smoke if it was banned. There are only fifteen percent of Australians smoking now and they expect more to give up with plain packaging.

When my daughter met with the respiratory nurse to discuss taking her son home from hospital she was asked if she had many friends who smoke - and daughter (aged 29) couldn't think of a single one. The only smoker in my social circle is a homeless man who lived here for a while (never smoked in the house) and when I met him and his wife for lunch a couple of weeks ago he proudly produced an electronic cigarette and informed me that he hasn't smoked for almost four months. His non-smoking wife is over the moon. I think, like drink driving, or not wearing a seatbelt, that these campaigns do eventually make a difference.

There is very good evidence that children have more hospital admissions for respiratory infections when their parents smoke, so not surprised they asked this question. We had a family gathering with a dozen or so of us last week - only one smoker.
One of the government cuts in this country has been , um, I think they called it something like "publicity" - you may have noticed that there is very little public health education these days. But it is quite tricky to work out which ads work and why.
Congratulations to all you ex smokers. Well done.

I saw these new packets on the news last night. They are very graphic and ugly. I gave up smoking 15 years ago but if these packets had been the norm 40 years ago I doubt I'd have started in the first place.

I am inclined to think that they might dissuade young people from taking up smoking. It will be interesting to see if they do make a difference, but I doubt if they will have much effect on hardened smokers. Presumably, if the UK government wanted to introduce the same thing there would have to be EU-wide agreement.

I worked in a civil service office in the 70s where the 'older women' (younger than I am now - sob!) kept their cig packets in a purse type thingy which had an outer pocket in which the lighter was kept. I think I see a gap in the market

Given the amount of money the nhs has to spend on smoking related illness something has to be done to stop people from smoking. Having said that, people are going to live longer and then suffer from other expensive illnesses. Maybe we'll all be made to start smoking when we reach retirement age 'ok you won't have to work till you're 68/69/70 or whatever as long as you start smoking 40 a day at 60'.

crimson for goodness sake, don't give them ideas!