Plain Packaging to Hit Ireland in 2017

In July, we published an article about the "world's ugliest color," Pantone 448 C, being used as the primary color on tobacco packaging in the U.K. and Australia, as well as some other countries and jurisdictions. This practice, known as  "plain packaging," used along with written warnings about the risks of smoking, is meant to deter cigarette sales.

Some countries have even gone to the extremes of adding graphic images associated with smoking — think diseased lungs and mouths. While the United States has yet to pass any legislation that would mandate plain packaging, dozens of countries are joining in the decision to attempt to curb smoking.

The latest country to adopt plain packaging legislation came on Oct. 4, when Irish Minister for Health Simon Harris confirmed that Ireland would adopt graphic images and written consequences of smoking on cigarette and tobacco packaging in May 2017, according to The Irish Times.

According to the news report:

Mr. Harris said the regulation of the appearance of tobacco packaging is aimed at improving public health by reducing the appeal of tobacco products to consumers, and increasing the effectiveness of health warnings on the retail packaging of tobacco products.

It will also reduce the ability of the packaging of tobacco products to mislead consumers about the harmful effects of smoking, the Minister said.

The new bill will allow the Minister to regulate the packaging color on the inside and the outside, as well as how the barcodes and brand name are printed on the cigarette boxes.

The packaging restrictions will eliminate the ability for package printers to include any specialty printing to the packaging.

As PrintWeek reports, the new packaging regulations — specifically in the U.K. — could have a substantial impact on package printing. From PrintWeek:

“A lot of printing will be badly affected by the implementation of plain packaging. Plain packaging means standardised packaging doing away with branding and ID, having health warnings and an olive green background with a small font," Mike Ridgway of the Consumer Packaging Manufacturers Alliance said to PrintWeek. "It’s not just graphics, it’s the construction and the substrates. There’s no hot-foil stamping, no embossing, graining or anything that gives the pack any sort of particular graphical marketing characteristics.”

The bill has been in the works for some time. In May, when plain packaging was officially launched in the U.K., The Irish Examiner reported that there had been delays in passing the legislation in Ireland, mostly due to government delays.

That may have made tobacco packaging printers in Ireland happy, but not everyone was as thrilled.

The Examiner went on to report:

Donal Buggy, of the Irish Cancer Society, said Ireland had missed the chance to lead the reform and become one of the first countries in Europe to do it.

"The sooner plain packs are on the shelves in Ireland the better," he said.

Well that wait is over, because come May 2017, plain packaging will be hitting shelves in Ireland.