News | Opinion
2017
Princess Leia ultimately killed by the real Darth Vader
The U.S. Surgeon General has concluded that...simple movie ratings changes could reduce the number of teen smokers by nearly one in five (18 per cent), and prevent one million deaths from smoking among U.S. children alive today. In Canada, the ratings systems are even worse, with 86 per cent of movies featuring tobacco use being youth-rated
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2016
Guest op-ed: A smoke-free scene
The solution is an “R” rating for all movies that contain tobacco imagery. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that giving an “R” rating to future movies with tobacco would be expected to reduce the number of teen smokers by nearly one in five and prevent one million deaths from smoking among children alive today.
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In the fight against tobacco, advocates shouldn't send free speech up in smoke
The debate about smoking and the movies raises important questions about the history of government regulation of the movies, the ability of an industry to regulate itself, and the best ways to advocate for changes to what we see on our movie screens.
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Why should Hollywood quit smoking?
California's anti-smoking lobby wants Hollywood to give up cigarettes. But what's so wrong with stars who light up the screen?
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Why does Hollywood glorify smoking...?
Now, you would think that if Hollywood was really serious about it, a bunch of liberals interested in public health, that they would not make any movies with anybody smoking. So what's up?
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2015
We've come a long way, but not far enough
Smoking portrayed on movie screens had considerable influence in persuading people to smoke. The message was overt and powerful — cool, sophisticated, tough, savvy people smoked.
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'Mad Men' got the smoking issue right after all
Suddenly the fictional world of 'Mad Men' collided with the facts about women's lung and heart health and the array of deadly illnesses linked to women smoking.
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Disney takes on matter of life and death
Disney isn’t alone in creating the stories and images young people watch. We need the other major studios to follow Disney’s example.
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2014
No Smoking Allowed! John Constantine will need a nicotine patch In 'Constantine'
At the end of day, no smoking [in an upcoming NBC series] doesn't seem like that big a deal.
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Hollywood's smoky images send wrong message about lighting up
National health groups: We call on Netflix and others in entertainment to minimize the mythology around smoking.
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