Graphic warning labels ‘help smokers to remember message’

Graphic health warning labels on cigarette packaging have been shown to aid smokers' recollection of their message in a new US study.

Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania assessed 200 current smokers for the trial, showing them either a text-only warning label or one featuring an image of a patient on a ventilator.

It was found that those who viewed the graphic label spent more time looking at the ad, as well as being more able to accurately recall the associated message when asked to repeat it from memory.

Previous studies from Europe and Canada have also shown a link between graphic labels and altered attitudes to smoking, but since these were large population-based studies, the findings could have been affected by concurrent tax increases or anti-smoking media campaigns.

Dr Andrew Strasser, associate professor for the university's department of psychiatry, said: "This research provides valuable insight into how the warning labels may be effective, which may serve to create more effective warning labels in the future."

Earlier this year, Cancer Research UK published a study raising concerns that colourful, slickly-designed cigarette packaging is encouraging young people to take up the habit.