Pictures More Effective than Text to Stop Smoking

Graphic warnings on tobacco products are more effective than text cautions, new UNC analysis has found.

By this point you are more than likely familiar with the television ads from smokers warning against the dangers of using tobacco.

Those commercials can be uncomfortable, but that’s the point. And Seth Noar, UNC Journalism Professor and member of UNC’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, says analysis done at UNC of global studies found the graphic warnings on cigarette packs are more of a deterrent to smoking than text warnings.

“We looked at 25 different outcomes,” Noar says, “and what was most impressive was that on almost every outcome these pictorial warnings outperformed text warnings.”

The 25 outcomes surveyed included, do the picture warnings generate more attention, fear, and consciousness among smokers.

Noar says while Americans see these graphic television commercials, other countries take different approaches. He notes Australia is one of the most progressive countries utilizing tactics to encourage residents to quit smoking – or not start smoking to begin with.

“They’re the first country in the world that has told tobacco companies ‘you cannot put any branding on the cigarette pack,’” Noar says. “[They] can only put [for example] ‘Marlboro’ in plain text. They can’t have the red color. They can’t have the fancy font and some of the branding.

“And they also have a very large graphic picture on the pack.”

Noar says UNC’s analysis found there is good evidence these types of campaigns are effective in keeping residents from smoking.

“[With] the CDC’s “Tips From Former Smokers” campaign, there was an evaluation that came out recently that suggested that that campaign may have impacted something like 100,000 people,” he says, “essentially getting 100,000 people to quit smoking for good.”

Noar adds legislation was introduced years ago in the US to bring these graphics onto cigarette packs domestically, but it has been stalled in court filings from large tobacco companies.

“It seems to be across the board, no matter what country is trying to implement tobacco-control policies, the industry often uses litigation as a way to try to stop the policies [or] try to slow them down,” he says. “I think especially when countries are trying to do something that’s new, that’s innovative.”

While litigation can cause the graphics implementation to be slowed in a country with the resources of the United States, some smaller countries are not able to compete with the litigation dollars being put forward by tobacco companies.

Noar adds, in light of all of the evidence that graphic warnings are more effective than the text cautions, the number one way to slow the number of citizens smoking has consistently been raising the price of a pack of cigarettes.