Australia is getting tough with tobacco companies. The government there recently voted to ban branded packaging for cigarettes and only allow them to be sold in plain packages that only contain graphic warnings against smoking.

Several tobacco companies have taken legal action against the law and now a different form of payback has emerged: British American Tobacco's Winfield brand cigarettes sold in France “feature a picture of a kangaroo on the front, with a map of Australia and the words ‘An Australian Favourite,’” according to the Telegraph. The health warning, "Fumer tue," translated to "Smoking Kills."

The Aussie packaging, of course, is not sitting well with Australia’s Health Minister, Nicola Roxon.

“Many Australians are going to be outraged that a big tobacco company all the way round the world is using Australia's healthy lifestyle to market their deadly products," she stated. "What I think it's really showing is the sneaky levels that tobacco companies will go to encourage people to buy their products."

The legal case against the Australian government is set to be heard in April.

The Australian Society for Kangaroo Lovers probably isn’t happy about it, either.

Since Australia passed legislation that will force tobacco companies to sell all of their products in brand name-free, plain green packaging with such heartwarming statements as “Smoking causes blindness” or “Don’t let children breathe your smoke” (and are accompanied by equally pleasant images), tobacco companies have been in a bit of snit.

On Tuesday, Philip Morris Asia became the third tobacco giant, along with British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco, to file suit in the country’s High Court to try and put a stop to such an effort, Reuters reports.

The new legislation in Australia “is being closely watched by governments considering similar moves in Europe, Canada, and New Zealand,” Reuters notes, which is part of the reason why the tobacco companies are getting all worked up about it. But Philip Morris claims it has other reasons as well.Continue reading...

The growing fight between the federal government and the food and beverage industry over front-of-package nutritional labeling is going to come down to these words: "Some product icons may also provide information about fiber, vitamins, calcium and other nutrients that are essential for a healthy diet."

This sentence is taken from the new web site that describes the labeling system being pursued by the industry and being promoted now in the early stages of a $50 million consumer awareness campaign. Companies understandably want to be able to tout the positive nutritional attributes of their branded products in addition to listing, in an easy-to-understand, standard format, what might be called the "baddies": sugar, saturated fats, calories and sodium.

Mainstream food and beverage manufacturers have spent billions of dollars reformulating old products and introducing new ones along better-for-you lines over the last several years, so why shouldn't they want to promote these advantages to consumers right there on the front of the package?Continue reading...

A can of Budweiser used to seem as American as baseball and apple pies, but consumers have been losing interest in the brew for years and the beer’s owners, Anheuser-Busch InBev, are trying a new way to combat losses.

After 18 months of development, Budweiser is getting a new logo, can and packaging design, according to the company, in a visual refresh that will emphasize the color red as well as the brew’s creed that promises a continuation of the iconic beer’s "135-year long commitment to quality."

NPR suggests that the can now has so much red, it almost looks like a Coke can. This is the 12th redesign since Bud launched its first can in 1936. Take a closer look below and let us know what you think.Continue reading...

US cigarette manufacturers haven’t had to start selling the nine new pack designs that include nasty warning labels with images of rotting teeth, corpses, diseased lungs, and other such things on them but a new report will give them some hope.

The FDA requires that the new pack designs be sold starting in the fall of 2012, but a new report predicts that there won't be an immediate impact for Big Tobacco.Continue reading...

HP, now one of the world's largest information technology brands, was founded in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California, by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. Now the brand has gone from the analog garage to the digital super highway. Case in point: HP’s new Indigo WS6000 Digital Press, which makes large-format printing a simpler proposition than ever before for those involved in packaging and label design.

It was recently featured the Follow Possible Package Printing Forum at Innovative Labeling Solutions, last month in Hamilton, Ohio, above. This week, it's being showcased at Interpack 2011 in Messe Düsseldorf, Germany, where HP has set up a "Digital Supermarket" to showcase the printer's innovative packaging and label capabilities.Continue reading...

The UK's Swan branded tobacco filters and papers have undergone a redesign — more on Under Consideration.

You can't help but notice the Help Remedies line of over-the-counter medicines for its distinctive packaging. The New York-based brand's minimal, clean design hints at what's inside with an impression of the blister-pack, for instance, but it's the text that really sells what's inside. 

Offering simple medicine for simple health issues, it strips away the complexities that typical medicinal packaging bombards patients with. Instead, each package bears a "Help, I..." line of text, such as "Help, I can't sleep" for a sleep aid, or "Help, I have a headache" for a package of acetaminophen.

The simplicity of the packaging matches the promise of the products, which feature no dyes, coatings, and aim to use only the main chemical needed to treat what the patient needs.Continue reading...