The tobacco industry has never lacked for ingenuity in sustaining cigarettes’ appeal in the face of growing awareness of their lethal effect. After all, Marlboro Man was created to give filtered cigarettes a more rugged image, when cancer scares drove men to switch to a product then seen as feminine. But now all such branding is under threat, after Australia’s high court dismissed an industry challenge to a law on standardised packaging.

If international litigation also fails, Australians will from December be buying cigarettes in packets of an off-putting olive-green shade, carrying images of smoking-related diseases and showing brand names only in plain font. The UK is consulting on similar measures and many other countries may follow.

For smokers, this is merely the latest in a long line of restrictions – on smoking in bars, advertising, retail display and so on. For the industry, it is a revolution. In the short term, standard packets are likely to reduce sales only slightly. But companies that have prospered by creating premium brands with a distinct image now face a future in which people may find it hard to tell the difference between them. Some surveys suggest plain packets make smokers less likely even to notice differences in taste.