Judging a cigarette by its package

Canada's cigarette companies are a bit like the Energizer Bunny — they keep going and going, against all odds.

First, their tobacco ads were pulled from TV screens across the country. No more promoting that fun and sexy lifestyle in your living room.

Then cigarette companies were told they could only advertise in publications with an adult readership of at least 85 per cent. 

Next, cigarette companies were banned from sponsoring events. Then, cigarette packages were — literally — forced under cover in stores across the country.

This week, the federal government announced a bill aimed at protecting young people from taking up the habit. The bill, if made into law, will ban tobacco advertisements in all publications, regardless of readership age. And will forbid sugar and fruit flavours from being added to small cigars, called cigarillos. 

'Like a little BlackBerry'

So what to do, if you're a tobacco giant trying to boost sales?

Well, all that's left is the package that cigarettes come in — the final frontier for marketers who are tasked with keeping people smoking and encouraging a new crowd.

Check out the latest "Superslims" by Benson & Hedges. Sleek packages that might pass for iPods, containing slender smokes reminiscent of the '40s. When I showed them on the streets of Vancouver, passersby called them "sleek," "chic," "cute" and "feminine."  Women definitely preferred them to other brands I hauled out.

Not to be outdone, Player's cigarettes now open sideways — resulting in comments like "Cool!" and "Like a little BlackBerry!"

And then there's du Maurier's overhaul — the box is no longer boxy, it's octagonal.   

"It's a way of making the pack talk louder," says David Hammond, a health researcher at the University of Waterloo. "When you don't have TV ads, you don't have billboards, when you don't have that traditional marketing, this is a way of the pack standing out and doing more than it used to do."

A call for plain packages

Hammond says cigarette makers are also using colour to convey messages. 

Gone are the days when companies could claim their smokes were "light" or "mild," so now they've produced packages in stark white.

"It's against the law for manufacturers to promote cigarettes in any way that suggests one brand is less harmful than another," says Hammond. "And colour is an excellent way to do that."

What's needed, says Hammond, is plain packaging, pure and simple. That means no colours, no logos, no special shapes. 

"Plain packaging does three things," he says. "It makes it less appealing to kids, reduces false beliefs about health risks, and it makes health information on the pack more important.

"At the end of the day, it reflects the idea that maybe we shouldn't be marketing a lethal consumer product to kids in pink packaging and the rest of it."

We contacted Canada's big three tobacco companies — Imperial Tobacco, JTI Macdonald, and Rothman, Benson & Hedges. All three told us that they're opposed to plain packaging, because it takes away a consumer's choice. 

The industry has also argued that moving to plain packaging wouldn't affect sales, a claim that makes Hammond scoff. "I don't know how they can spend millions on packaging, and then say taking away those things will have no impact."