News
Browse news articles and editorials, or search by topic or year. Click to read the full text, if it's freely available.
2019
Still way too much smoking in movies aimed at kids
Trends like these are important, Tynan and colleagues said, because "the Surgeon General has concluded that there is a causal relationship between depictions of smoking in movies and initiation of smoking among young persons."
Read more...
Smoking in movies, especially PG-13 flicks, skyrockets
The CDC says that while the percentage of films that show or imply tobacco use has been stable since 2010, the number of “tobacco incidents” in top-grossing movies is up 57 percent overall and 120 percent in PG-13 movies, especially biographical dramas.
Read more...
Tobacco use soars in top Hollywood movies
The new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that while the share of top movies that showed tobacco product use remained level in recent years, there was a 57% increase in "tobacco incidents" in those films, driven largely by a 120% spike in PG-13 movies.
Read more...
Taxpayers don't get much when states like California hand tax breaks to Hollywood, study says
“This new study should put to rest any notion that motion picture tax incentives may work in some states but not others,” said lead study author Michael Thom, a USC associate professor. “The states investing the most in incentives are not getting the return on investment taxpayers deserve, pure and simple. These incentives cost taxpayers billions of dollars, at a time when that money could be directed to other much needed public services.”
Read more...
Guam AG joins national campaign against streaming services depicting smoking
Attorney General Leevin Camacho said that after the master settlement agreement with tobacco, they realized that the reason a lot of young people are smoking is because they imitate what they see in movies and TV.
Read more...
Netflix curbs tobacco use onscreen, but not pot.
...Rosenberg says it's perhaps disingenuous for filmmakers or studios to argue, as Netflix does today, that smoking onscreen is an artistic expression when much of it, historically, came out of marketing departments — product placement ... Glantz worries that kind of product placement might happen again with weed, once it becomes widely commercialized.
Read more...
AG Raoul to streaming companies: Don't show cigarettes
“As the attorneys general emphasize, the ongoing and even increasing appearance of smoking and tobacco use and related imagery in countless movies and shows that are streamed is a disaster for our youth,” said Cliff Douglas, vice president of tobacco control for the American Cancer Society. “One wonders what the industry is thinking, if anything, when they continue to put this damaging stuff out there; when they have complete discretion to be more thoughtful about protecting our children when pursuing their creativity.”
Read more...
43 attorneys general ask streaming industry to stop smoking
| Associated Press (7 Aug 2019)
Forty-three of the nation’s attorneys general are asking the streaming industry to limit depictions of tobacco use in their videos.
Read more...
Attorney General Becerra co-leads bipartisan coalition of 43 Attorneys General urging video streaming industry to protect young viewers from tobacco
| CA Dept of Justice (7 Aug 2019)
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson today led a bipartisan coalition of 43 attorneys general in urging the streaming industry to limit tobacco use in their video content. Due to the growing use of tobacco products amongst teens, the attorneys general urge the streaming industry to take proactive steps to protect the lives of young viewers.
Read more...
State AGs ask streaming industry to protect young viewers from tobacco imagery
The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) sent letters to leading U.S. streaming services, encouraging the industry to adopt business practices that protect young viewers from tobacco imagery in video content. Letters were sent to Amazon.com, Apple, AT&T, CBS Corporation, Comcast Corporation, Discovery, The Walt Disney Company, Google, Netflix, Sony, Lionsgate, Viacom, and Walmart.
Read more...