According to a New Zealand study, removing all branding off tobacco and cigarette packets can prove to be an effective option for turning teenagers off the habit of smoking.

It was found by the Auckland study that the present graphic warnings on cigarette packs were designed to prevent smokers from having a smoke, but they also led teens to view smokers as undesirable, which was evident from descriptions such as “social outcasts” and “addicted”.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

Australia is the first country to announce a plan to force tobacco into plain packaging with large pictorial health warnings-a move the industry says it will fight.

From 2012, the only remnant of branding would be the name of the product, in uniform print. Gone would be the colours and attractive pictures.

“I think it would be hugely powerful for young people. The pack is the last bastion of tobacco industry promotion,” the New Zealand Herald quoted Auckland University researcher Judith McCool as saying.

McCool co-supervised master’s degree research by Lisa Webb in which 80 students aged 14 or 15 from six Auckland schools were interviewed about their attitudes to smoking, smokers, tobacco packaging and plain packets.

The study found that for teenagers the plain packets were dull, but they said that it enhanced the impact of the graphic health warnings.

“These perceptions were transferred to the act of cigarette smoking as an unattractive or uncool behaviour,” said the researchers.

The researchers said teenagers were left confused by the health messages on brightly colored packets alongside brand imagery that actually blunted effects of the warnings.

If you seriously want to get rid of smoking, things are not as difficult as perceived in the first place.

Before we read any further, it is important for you to note that having a smoke does not make you cool or part of the Gen X but it does make you prone to health complications such as heart attack, cancer, and mouth cancer.

From Blogforyouth.com:

It has been proved that the younger you start smoking the lesser are the chances for you of quitting nicotine addiction. Google shows a lot of pictures of people living with the smoke day and night and ruining their lives. Although most of them get influenced in their teens as a part of youth style or just to hang around with young generation who says it’s cool! Some think that smoking is the right passage to adulthood. Most of the times teenagers who are trying to quit, get into a situation of stress or depression and they may start smoking again. Once that willpower is overcome by the urge of smoking it becomes very difficult for the person to regain the courage back to force oneself to quit smoking. Google search engine may help you search a good solution as how to quit smoking. Therefore it is very important for the closest people around to counsel the addict with love and care. Among young people addiction to nicotine can cause lots of short term health risks to avoid chances of severe depression and suicide attempts.

The point is – you surely can find a better reason to live life King-size rather than lighting the cigarette to be a part of the crowd.