Personalizing pack health warnings

Smokers in the UK are being given the opportunity of personalizing cigarette-pack health warnings, according to a story by Miranda Larbi for Metro Café.

Larbi says that, following the move to introduce standardized packaging in the UK, creative team Oli + Josie have developed a way of printing smoking health warnings.

Their website, Personalise A Cigarette Pack, lets people add any name to the ‘Smoking Kills’ warning currently on cigarette packs.

Oli Frost told Metro that there had been a lot of similar initiatives in the past. “Coke did ‘share a Coke with mum/dad/Ben’, and then every other brand copied it,” he was quoted as saying.

Following on from that, Oli + Josie wondered what would happen if they applied the idea to health warnings.

“With Christmas coming up, it’s an easy stocking filler for the smoker in your life or a way to remind that family member of a good New Year’s resolution,” said Frost.

You can write anything under ‘Smoking Kills’: your friend’s name or your mother’s name…

Metro asked Frost whether he thought a unique label was going to be enough to make a smoker quit; or, indeed, even print the labels?

“In a way it doesn’t matter if people use them – it’s just more of a fun way to remind people about a serious issue,” he said.