One of the arguments used by proponents of plain packaging is that tobacco companies deliberately target women with the use of "pretty" packaging.
A couple of weeks ago the Irish Cancer Society published a report, Women and Smoking: Time to Face the Crisis, that highlighted a number of social and psychological reasons why women find it harder quit. Allegedly.
I wrote about it here and referenced a 2012 article by Claire Fox, director of the Institute of Ideas, that hit back at the sexist implication that women are more easily manipulated by packaging and marketing than men.
(Really? I'm a sucker for 19 inch alloy wheels and rear spoilers on cars.)
Anyway, The Journal.ie has today published a similarly robust response.
Reacting to the claim that ‘Women think lighter coloured packs are more elegant and feminine and less harmful’, political researcher Nuala Walsh writes: Women aren’t being ‘tricked’ into smoking by pretty packaging.
Warmly recommended.