the X engineer responsible for the change … stated that this design is “not the final design (going to make it look more badass)”
incidentally this engineer is a fascist weeb who complains about gay characters in TV shows and bragged about getting trans flags removed from a grocery store by leaving a negative google review
2001 and 2002 were the years that the EU brought in bans on smoking advertisements, the requirement for cigarette packets to be plain packaging, and the requirement for large visible health warnings on the packets.
This is just one country but this sudden drop in usage played out identically in all EU countries that were required to carry out the changes. This initially started with plain white packaging but these days they look like this:
Do not underestimate the effects of branding and brand emotions. Marketers are are obsessed with branding for a reason.