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Abstract

                   This research aims to examine the response to the cigarette plain package among 805 non-smokers aged over 13 years in secondary schools and vocational colleges. This research adopts a pre-experimental design. Mock-up model of cigarette plain package is presented to the samples, and their fear of smoking when noticing pictorial health warning label on cigarette plain package is measured by the questionnaire on general information, namely, gender, age, education institute, income, domicile, and fear feeling in response to the background color and pictorial health warning label based on the concept of fear arousal, the prospect theory pertaining to loss framed incentives, and the semiotics. The objective is to make the selective pictures have a responsive impact, i.e., to provoke fear feeling and affect perception, resulting in smoking cessation. The instrument for measurement of fear feeling is the picture and background color depicting disadvantages of smoking. The background color of the cigarette package has been chosen from researches on pictorial health warning label on cigarette plain package and comments from experts in the area of arts and communication, resulting in 4 colors, namely, brown, white, black, and olive green. The pictures displaying severity of smoking are those having been adopted during 2010-2014 which have been designed to be the cigarette plain package or colorless package, and enlarged to be equal to 55% of total area of the package. The results of the study revealed that the pictorial health warning label adopted during 2010-2014 and the enlargement of such picture to be equal to 55% of total area of the plain package as designed by the study which achieved the top 3 ranking due to the highest fear arousal are the display of smoking-related oral cancer, lung cancer, and laryngeal cancer, respectively. The background color on cigarette package which induces more fear is black since it is the symbol of death, and the pictorial health warning label on the cigarette plain package affects the notice of warning message and picture on the package. Therefore, to design the pictorial health warning label on the cigarette plain package should have the key concept presenting contents for fear arousal purpose through pictures which show internal and external organ damages, featuring extreme close-up camera angle, as well as camera cut or crop technique which clearly emphasizes the damaged organ. Such design became the form of pictorial health warning label on cigarette packages worldwide. The design is consistent with the semiotics concept which utilizes composition, design principle, and camera angle to design and focus on communicating dreadfulness through pictures until affecting perception or subsequent imagination, as well as other connoted meaning, for example, oral cancer would also have impacts on images, handsomeness, and attractiveness. Thus, the power of the pictorial health warning label and the background color, i.e., black, on the cigarette plain package is substantially meaningful to individuals, as well as affecting fear of smoking.