Cigarette packets to play audio health warnings in fresh anti-smoking drive
Having tried every trick in the book in order to try and get smokers to quit; from graphic warnings, to e-cigarettes and patches, health experts believe they have hit upon the perfect way to stub out the habit for good – talkative fag packets.
The new tech will see a health warning spoken by the packet each time it is opened for a fly cig, explaining how a few puffs could set you on the road to lung cancer and was funded by Cancer Research UK, in an effort to harness the ‘marketing tools of the tobacco industry’ to help smokers quit.
Crawford Moodie of Stirling University’s Centre for Tobacco Control Research, said of his invention: “People thought they were annoying, but that is a really good way to capture attention.”
Sheila Duffy of anti-smoking charity ASH welcomed the development, saying: “The tobacco industry buys a great deal of creative expertise to market its addictive and lethal products to new consumers, mainly young people.”