“You get past the packaging”: young women smokers’ resistance to standardized cigarette packaging

Abstract

ABSTRACT We examined how young women construct and experience plain tobacco packaging. Forty-one Australian young women who are current smokers took part in this qualitative interview research. Data was analyzed using constructivist grounded theory, with the core category about the strategic ways young women resist plain tobacco packaging. The majority of women reported that plain packaging was unappealing and that the larger health warnings were shocking and offensive. However, almost all reported being desensitized to the graphic health warnings. The graphic warnings were seen as “fake” or lacking in credibility, and irrelevant to the women’s life stage. Importantly, the majority of women engaged in practices to strategically resist and avoid health warnings on the packs as a way to continue smoking. Our findings point to the need to develop health warnings on tobacco products that are gender specific and focus on proximal social consequences to increase salience for young women smokers.