To curb the compulsive purchases of appealing junk food, would plain, logo-less packaging reduce sales of these snacks?
We all know attractive, stimulating packaging – backed by a bit of pushy advertising – are made to coerce shoppers into buying that product.
To curb the compulsive purchases of appealing junk food, would plain, logo-less packaging reduce sales of these snacks?
Researcher Wolfram Schultz, for one, thinks it could.
He feels limiting temptation in our environment is important, “as we cannot do anything against the brain’s signal that makes us happy when we eat more,” he said in an interview with Cambridge News.
Similar to how smoking has been cut down in some countries, plain food packaging could also lessen consumers’ desire for calorie-rich foods, which are known to cause over or binge eating.
“We should not advertise, propagate or encourage the unnecessary ingestion of calories. There should be some way of regulating the desire to get more calories. We don’t need these calories,” Schultz said at a press conference.
“Colourful wrapping of high energy foods of course makes you buy more of that stuff and once you have it in your fridge, it’s in front of you every time you open the fridge and ultimately you’re going to eat it and eat too much.”
Related: Junk food cravings could be curbed with exercise, study suggests
Health Canada backs Schultz’s theory of plain packaging, particularly in terms of its effect on smoking: “Independent research, across several countries, has consistently shown that plain and standardized packaging measures reduce the appeal of tobacco products, particularly among young people.”
Australia was the first to adopt plain packaging requirements on all tobacco products in 2012; the U.K. & France have done so as well, with Canada expected to follow suit.
Photo credit: Radu Bercan/Shutterstock
