2012: Health warnings on alcohol? You’re joking, right?

Ten years ago Forest launched our campaign against plain packaging of tobacco.

The Hands Off Our Packs campaign was announced to the public via a reception in Westminster that featured, among other things, wine bottles (above) with labels that read:

WARNING! Alcohol can cause death, poisoning, cancer and addiction

Four years later we repeated the stunt when Forest and the Tobacco Retailers Alliance hosted an event at the Churchill War Rooms in Westminster.

The event, in May 2016, marked the introduction of standardised packaging, a policy we helped delay but failed to stop.

The idea on each occasion was to warn consumers that other products - alcohol, sugary drinks, junk food - would be next in line.

The warnings on the bottles of wine were particularly well received, although some guests seemed to miss the serious point we were making.

Graphic health warnings on alcohol? You’re joking, right?

Now researchers at Stirling University, one of 13 universities that form the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies (UKCTAS), are claiming that warning labels ‘could make alcohol five times less appealing to young people’ as if this, of itself, is a good thing.

Surely we should be educating people about the risks of regular excessive consumption, not making alcohol per se ‘less appealing’?

When I was young we were often told ‘Everything in moderation, nothing in excess’. There are exceptions to this rule but I still can’t think of any better advice and if I sometimes ignore it myself that’s my choice and I’ll take the consequences.

Meanwhile what a horrible, joyless world we are in danger of creating if everything that is potentially ‘bad’ for us has to be made ‘less appealing’.

Perhaps it’s time that public health lobbyists came with their own warning. Any suggestions?

Above: Hands Off Our Packs campaigners Amul Pandya and Angela Harbutt at the launch of the campaign in February 2012; below: wine bottles with health warnings at another Forest event, this time at the Churchill War Rooms in May 2016