Integrating Negative Social Cues in Tobacco Packaging: A Novel Approach to Discouraging Smokers

• Published date: 01 December 2019
• Author: Jennifer Jeffrey,Matthew Thomson
• Date: 01 December 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12232

1380 THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS

TRENDS AND APPLICATIONS

JENNIFER JEFFREY AND MATTHEW THOMSON

Integrating Negative Social Cues in Tobacco Packaging:

A Novel Approach to Discouraging Smokers

Smoking is an international health crisis. Tobacco packaging is an

important vehicle to convey antismoking messages, which to date have

been predominantly limited to fear-based health appeals. Using an

experimental approach, we examine whether a novelalternative—using

negative social cues on packaging—is effectiveat discouraging smoking.

Our resultssupport the notion that packaging which conveysto smokers

that “others” view smoking negatively is sufcient to trigger feelings

of self-consciousness, which in turn reduces smoking intentions. This

approach is particularly effective in “isolated” smokers who do not

see smoking as identity-relevant or congruent with their social self.

These ndings suggest that for a particular segment of the smoking

population, the integration of negative social cues on packaging may

be an effective complement to current fear-based appeals.

Although smoking has declined in developed countries, it remains a

major cause of disease, contributing globally to over 7 million deaths annu-

ally (Burton et al. 2015; World Health Organization [WHO] 2017). This

major public health concern warrants a multipronged strategy incorporat-

ing a range of tools and approaches. One such tool is tobacco packaging

itself, given its ability to prominently and repeatedly warn smokers of

tobacco’s dangers via text and images. The 2005 WHO-led tobacco

treaty (“The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control”) recommends

at least half of all cigarette packages be covered with graphic pictorial

warnings and text (Article 11, Framework Convention Alliance 2017).

This recommendation has been adopted by over 100 countries, including

Canada, Australia, and much of Western Europe, though legal challenges

led by the tobacco industry have thwarted adoption in the United States

Jennifer Jeffrey (jjeffr3@uwo.ca)is an Assistant Professor at King’s University College at Western

University (266 Epworth Avenue,London, Ontario, Canada N6A 2M3). Matthew Thomson (mthom-

son@ivey.uwo.ca)is an Associate Professor at Ivey Business School, Western University (1255 West-

ern Road, London, Ontario, Canada, N6G 0N1). This research has beneted from nancial support

from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

The Journal of Consumer Affairs, Winter 2019: 1380–1395

DOI: 10.1111/joca.12232

Copyright 2018 by The American Council on Consumer Interests

WINTER 2019 VOLUME 53, NUMBER 4 1381

(Bayer, Johns, and Colgrove 2013). Many tobacco researchers advocate

for greater use of graphic warning labels, arguing these are more effective

than text-only labels (Hammond et al. 2006; Huang, Chaloupka, and

Fong 2014; Noar et al. 2016). Given the importance of tobacco-package

warnings, researchers continue to explore new opportunities for effec-

tive packaging within the frameworks and constraints of individual

country law.

Broadly speaking, packaging-based research has at its foundation an

assumption that images and text should disseminate health-based mes-

sages, generating fear as the main deterrent. Tobacco packagesthus feature

images related to, for example, rotting teeth, cancer, and sudden infant

death. This approach makes sense, given that increasingly graphic pho-

tos evoke in smokers greater fear which, in turn, increases anti-smoking

behaviors (Andrews et al. 2014; Hammond 2011; Kees et al. 2010). How-

ever, while anti-smoking campaigns more generally have used a wide

variety of other arguments to supplement fear-appeals—its nancial cost,

negative impact on physical attractiveness, and so forth—incorporating

messaging highlighting the social drawbacks to smoking onto tobacco

packaging itself is rarely done outside of academic research, much of

which has focused specically on the youth smoking segment (e.g., Hoek,

Hoek-Sims, and Gendall 2013; Michaelidou, Dibb, and Ali 2008). Given

that diversifying tobacco packaging messages may help appeal to a broader

range of smoker segments (Strahan et al. 2002), here we explore how using

social cues of disapproval affect quitting intentions in an adult smoking

population.

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESES

Smoking, Social Norms, and Cues

All societies possess social norms dictating what behaviors and activ-

ities are deemed acceptable (Schultz et al. 2007). Social norms are not

necessarily consistent with laws (e.g., speeding); instead, people adhere

to them given the perceived rewards associated with compliance and the

perceived punishments associated with noncompliance (Cialdini, Reno,

and Kallgren 1990). Public health campaigns warning against second-hand

smoke exposure and public smoking bans have shifted societal perspec-

tives toward nonsmoking as the normative behavior. As a result, smoking

has become an increasingly unacceptable practice in much of the Western

world (Bayer 2008; Kim and Shanahan 2003). This shift has been credited

with helping reduce smoking prevalence (Alamar and Glantz 2006; Burton

et al. 2015; Fichtenberg and Glantz 2002).