The government is proposing to force tobacco companies to sell their cigarettes in uniformly plain packaging, in an attempt to halve the number of UK smokers by 2020.

The picture above is from the 80’s movie Repo Man, which, as a kind of off-beat gag featured blandly standardised descriptive packaging. Beer cans were labelled “beer”, cigarette packs “cigarettes” etc. In the light of this news (and the trend for generic looking supermarket basic ranges), it shows amazing prescience.

Some pundits have suggested such a ban would do little to change smokers’ desire to smoke, but the proposal’s strategy is a bit more focused than that: it aims to reduce the numbers of juvenile recruits. If one accepts that packaging is an effective tool for segmentation and creating appeal amongst the unconverted, then one has to conclude that such a policy would actually be effective.*

The only potential pitfall is that no branding is still branding of a kind - it says in effect “not approved by the authorities or the mainstream”. Just the kind of message that would appeal to wannabe teen rebels.

The policy announcement is probably nothing more than pre-election huckstering, but it might be the tip of an iceberg. Politicians like to be seen doing things, and pack changes are highly visible demonstrations of activity, hence coverage of this proposal, which also included vending machines, public smoking, smuggling etc, tended to lead with the packaging aspect. Next up, alcohol and then snack foods perhaps? The best insurance vulnerable brands can take out is to invest in their distinctive iconography while they still can.

* While sales overall will probably suffer, when cigarette advertising was banned market share supposedly saw little change – it will be interesting if this holds true with the removal of branding.