Tobacco Asia

12 tobaccoasia Issue 3, 2023 May / June Q&A THE TA Q A By Thomas Schmid Tobacco Asia (TA): How do you define plain packag- ing for tobacco products, primarily cigarettes? What design or graphical elements must be present - or in this case, ab- sent - for it to be actually plain? Mike Ridgway (MR): It's packaging with limited communication on it about the product. The main feature is a health warning on both back and front panels, and then health warnings on the top and on the sides. There is also a common color, olive green, which is allowed on the sides and other areas of the pack. So when you consider the health warnings and also bar codes and side health warn- ings, it leaves no room for product marketing or descriptions Mike Ridgway is the director of the UK-based Con- sumer Packaging Manufacturers Alliance, or CPMA. Having been professionally involved in the UK and European packaging industry for more than four de- cades, he founded CPMA to act as a packaging in- dustry voice to support its future in a world where packaging for all types of consumer products is forced to deal with increasingly tough regulations. In this con- text, Ridgway also is an outspoken critic of plain pack- aging for tobacco products. Mike Ridgway – Director, Consumer Packaging Manufacturers Alliance (CPMA) TA: So it's not really "plain", is it? MR: Calling it "plain" has emerged in the sense of it being "plain of marketing" and any printing or graphical enhancements that demonstrate the brand and the actual product. TA: What do tobacco regulators purportedly want to achieve with this plain packaging? MR: Well, it's difficult to define that. Different things are said by different people. When this was first introduced in Australia in 2012, there were three main objectives stated at the time: to decrease smoking levels; to increase awareness of smoking; and to reduce smoking among young people. But when I look at these objectives, they all have failed. TA: So plain packaging has not been a resounding success…? MR: I believe it's a failure and a lot of other peo- ple share my opinion. Well, smoking levels have come down in almost all markets -- but what's the connection between that and plain packaging? There is none. When you analyze what causes a reduction in smoking levels, the biggest factor is actually the price of the product and the taxation. TA: Plain packaging also seems to be playing into the hands of manufacturers of fake brand products. Compared to the state-of-the-art packaging designs that were histori- cally prevalent in the cigarette industry, plain packaging is very easy and cheap to reproduce by pretty much anyone with a desktop printer. MR: Yes, plain packaging has taken some sophis- tication out of the design. Carton board hinge lid blanks are a very technically exacting product. It's not just the printing. It's hot foil stamping, it's em- bossing, it's debossing, it's using special varnishes, gloss varnishes, matte varnishes and so on, all of which enhance the product and market the brand name. But when plain packaging was introduced, all that was eliminated. So a pack without the en- hancing features, that's what makes it easier to fake, to pirate. Counterfeiters no longer need big, capital-intensive equipment. TA: Quite a few other markets have since followed Aus- tralia's lead. How many countries do currently have plain packaging for cigarettes? MR: More than 100 countries worldwide have in- troduced health warnings that can take up virtually the whole of the pack. But should that be defined as "plain packaging"? The number of countries where you find true plain packaging along the lines of what I explained earlier… I believe there's

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