Smokers Cling to Mistaken Notion of ‘Safer’ Cigarettes, Study Says

Simply banning the use of words such as “light” and “mild” from cigarette packaging may not be enough to wean smokers away from the mistaken belief that some brands are less harmful than others, a study suggests.

To curb misleading marketing practices, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration outlawed the labeling of cigarettes as “light” or “mild” last year. But researchers who surveyed 8,000 smokers from the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia concluded that cigarette packaging continues to distort perceptions about smoking even though all conventional brands pose the same level of health risk.

The new study, published in the journal Addiction, found that 20 percent of smokers wrongly believe that some brands of cigarettes are safer than others. Those assumptions were highest among U.S. smokers. And moves by manufacturers that critics and regulators say are intended to perpetuate those notions — by, for example, changing their “light” cigarettes to “silver” and “gold” brands — appear to have paid off.

“Smokers of ‘gold’, ‘silver’, ‘blue’ or ‘purple’ brands were more likely to believe that their own brand might be a little less harmful compared to smokers of ‘red’ or ‘black’ brands,” the researchers say.

The findings could boost efforts to further regulate cigarette packaging. The Australian government is introducing legislation that would limit package design to plain colors and require packages to carry graphic health warnings. In the U.S., likewise, the FDA has proposed bigger and more graphic warnings on cigarette packages.

Study co-author David Hammond attributes the findings in part to a “hangover effect” from decades of sophisticated cigarette marketing. ”It is not terribly surprising when one thinks about the legacy of tobacco industry marketing, as well as the way in which brands continue to be marketed with descriptors such as ‘slims’ and ‘smooth’,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

In the U.S., Philip Morris came under scrutiny last year after it attached advertising “onserts” to its Marlboro Lights packs that stated, “Your Marlboro Lights pack is changing. But your cigarette stays the same. In the future, ask for ‘Marlboro in the gold pack.’” The FDA expressed concern that the onserts “may perpetuate the mistaken beliefs associated with your ‘light’ cigarettes when marketed as Marlboro in the gold pack.”

The new study found that smokers also falsely believe that slim cigarettes are less harmful, cigarettes with harsh taste are riskier to smoke than smooth-tasting cigarettes, filters reduce risk, and nicotine is responsible for most of the cancer caused by cigarettes.