Plain packaging cuts teen vape appeal but leaves adult interest unchanged, study finds

Plain packaging on vape pods significantly reduces their appeal to young people but has little impact on adult interest, according to new research published in The Lancet Regional Health.

The study, led by researchers from UCL and King’s College London in collaboration with Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and Brighton and Sussex Medical School, surveyed 2,770 young people (aged 11–18) and 3,947 adults across the UK. Participants were shown images of vape pod packs that were either fully branded, plain white with black text and flavour descriptors, or, in the case of adults, plain packs coded without flavour descriptions.

Among adolescents, 53 per cent said their peers would be interested in trying branded vape pods, compared with just 38 per cent for standardised white packs. Among adults, however, interest levels were largely unaffected by whether packaging was branded or plain.

Balancing youth protection and harm reduction

Lead author Dr Eve Taylor, from UCL’s Department of Behavioural Science & Health, said the findings highlight how regulation could balance youth protection with tobacco harm reduction: “Vape packaging and flavour regulations need to strike a delicate balance. They must aim to deter young people and people who do not smoke, while at the same time avoid discouraging people who smoke from using vaping to quit.”

“Our findings, in line with past evidence, show that regulating vape packaging might be helpful by reducing vaping’s appeal to adolescents but not adults. This gets us close to striking that balance.”

The research comes as the UK’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill progresses through the House of Lords. The bill will hand government new powers over packaging, display, advertising and flavours of vaping products, with the explicit goal of reducing youth uptake.

Hazel Cheeseman, chief executive of ASH, urged Parliament to act swiftly.

“This is important research which illustrates how policymakers could better regulate vapes to protect children without damaging them as a quitting aid for smokers,” Cheeseman commented. “Parliament must now get on and pass the Tobacco and Vapes Bill so detailed regulations can be laid without which it will be much more challenging to reduce teen vaping.”

Teen vaping on the rise

ASH’s 2024 Youth Survey found that 7 per cent of 11–17-year-olds in Great Britain currently vape – an estimated 400,000 adolescents – with around 40 per cent reporting daily use. The rapid rise in youth vaping has intensified scrutiny on how packaging, flavour descriptors and branding may contribute to appeal.

In the new study, researchers noted that vape packs currently vary widely in design, often featuring bright colours and elements such as cartoon characters. Packaging is seen as one of the industry’s primary marketing tools, particularly as restrictions on advertising have increased.

For adults, plain packaging did not alter perceptions of vaping’s relative harm compared to smoking, nor did it significantly reduce interest in trying the products. Standardising flavour names, such as changing “Blue Razz Lemonade” to “Blueberry Raspberry Lemonade,” had little additional effect. Among adults who neither smoked nor vaped, packs that replaced flavour names with codes such as “FR127” reduced interest further.

Study limitations

The researchers acknowledged some limitations: differences in how questions were framed for adolescents (focused on peer interest rather than self-interest) and the higher-than-average proportion of adult vapers in the sample compared with national figures. Nonetheless, they said the findings reinforce past evidence that standardised packaging can reduce youth uptake without discouraging smokers from switching.

The study was funded by Research England.

Industry pushback

The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has warned that forcing retailers to sell vapes in plain packaging could drive former smokers back to cigarettes.

John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA, said the policy risks blurring the distinction between smoking and vaping.

“The last thing we need is to package vaping products like cigarettes. Most smokers already believe that vaping is as least as bad for them as cigarettes, if not even more so, and research like this only serves to perpetuate this dangerous myth,” he said.

He argued that plain packaging measures introduced elsewhere, including Canada and the US, have coincided with rising smoking rates, and stressed that vaping remains the UK’s most effective quitting aid. According to Dunne, packaging should instead provide educational information on harm reduction benefits, rather than strip away branding.