Does the hand that controls the cigarette packet rule the smoker? Findings from ethnographic interviews with smokers in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and the USA. (October 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bell, Kirsten; Dennis, Simone; Robinson, Jude; Moore, Roland
• Is Part Of: Social science & medicine. Volume 142(2015)
• Page Start: 136
• Page End: 144
• Publication Date: 2015-10
• Subjects: Canada -- Australia -- United Kingdom -- USA -- Cigarette packaging -- Tobacco control -- Ethnographic interviews -- Comparative study; Social medicine -- Periodicals; Medical anthropology -- Periodicals; Public health -- Periodicals; Psychology -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Médecine sociale -- Périodiques; Anthropologie médicale -- Périodiques; Santé publique -- Périodiques; Psychologie -- Périodiques; Médecine -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 362.105
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.08.021
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0277-9536

Abstract

Abstract: Throughout the twentieth century, packaging was a carefully cultivated element of the appeal of the cigarette. However, the tobacco industry's control over cigarette packaging has been steadily eroded through legislation that aims to rebrand the packet from a desirable to a dangerous commodity—epitomized in Australia's introduction of plain packaging in 2012. Evident in both the enactment of cigarette packaging legislation and industry efforts to overturn it is the assumption that packets do things—i.e. that they have a critical role to play in either promoting or discouraging the habit. Drawing on 175 ethnographic interviews conducted with people smoking in public spaces in Vancouver, Canada; Canberra, Australia; Liverpool, England; and San Francisco, USA, we produce a 'thick description' of smokers' engagements with cigarette packets. We illustrate that despite the very different types of cigarette packaging legislation in place in the four countries, there are marked similarities in the ways smokers engage with their packets. In particular, they are not treated as a purely visual sign; instead, a primary means through which one's own cigarette packet is apprehended is by touch rather than by sight. Smokers perceive cigarette packets largely through the operations of their hands—through their 'handiness'. Thus, our study findings problematize the assumption that how smokers engage with packets when asked to do so on a purely intellectual or aesthetic level reflects how they engage with packets as they are enfolded into their everyday lives. Highlights: Cigarette packaging is viewed as a key element of the appeal of smoking. Health legislators are currently seeking to rebrand the packet to reduce smoking. However, smokers engage with their cigarette packet not just by sight but by touch. Their aesthetic response to the pack is only one aspect of their engagement with it.