News
Browse news articles and editorials, or search by topic or year. Click to read the full text, if it's freely available.
2018
"Actors must stop smoking on-screen"
PMK founder S. Ramadoss has written to Nadigar Sangam president M. Nasser on advising artists, especially leading heroes, to desist from smoking on-screen in their films. [Nadigar Sangam refers to the South Indian Artistes' Association (SIAA), India's actors union.]
Read more...
Delhi gov't sends notice to 'Badhaai Ho' makers, asks them to cut certain scenes
"A strict compliance notice has been issued to the director, producers and actors of the recently released movie 'Badhaai Ho' asking them to remove smoking scenes as well brand promotions of tobacco products from the film as these are violations under Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA)," said Additional Director (Health), Dr. S.K. Arora.
Read more...
Is JUULING…going to make it to television?
After she wrote the JUUL into the script, Gamble says the production team checked with her to make sure she’d actually meant “JUUL.” “The interesting thing is, when something that is [a] brand becomes popular, there's always a lot of back and forth around that on TV,” Gamble says. “Even just mentioning a brand by name is a conversation with several departments because there [are] legalities around it.”
Read more...
Smoking featured in half of hip-hop videos, study finds
Knutzen and her co-authors suggest that their findings could present an opportunity for the music industry to self-regulate. However, they note that previous efforts to do so have failed, and measures like the Recording Industry Association of America's parental advisory labels could entice youth rather than deter them.
Read more...
What if tomorrow Vijay smokes cigarette and falls ill: PMK leader Dr Anbumani Ramadoss
| The New Indian Express (4 Oct 2018)
Tamil Nadu MP (and former Indian health minister) Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss has yet again criticized actor Vijay for his movie posters carrying images of him smoking...The Health and Family Welfare Department had sent a legal intimation notice to the actor, director AR Murugadoss and producer Sun Pictures for violating the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003.
Read more...
Keeping score at home? Tobacco wins.
The Motion Picture Association of America, which has resisted efforts to censor tobacco, spent $674,000 on lobbying in Sacramento since the start of 2017 and donated $144,000 to candidates...Tobacco giants Altria and R.J. Reynolds have spent $79.6 million on California campaigns since 2015, including $1.64 million to Republican Party groups and $113,000 to Assembly health committee members.
Read more...
Third of all UK shows watched by kids reference smoking
A study of the five national free-to-air stations found it occurred in one in three prime time programmes – and nearly one-in-ten (8%) adverts or trailers. Channel 5 was the biggest offender. The study published in Tobacco Control found the amount of tobacco content has hardly changed in five years – including before the watershed. For instance it is seen in about a third of soap operas, chat shows and news and current affairs programmes, around four-in-ten documentaries and drams, half of comedies and two-in-three cartoons – mainly The Simpsons.
Read more...
Actors who smoke on screen to make antismoking PSAs
India's government is looking into suggestions by a panel that short films be made to convey anti-smoking messages with those actors who are depicted as smoking on screen, a top official has said.
Read more...
Nigeria aims to halt tobacco placement in films, videos
| Oracle News (Lagos) (24 Jul 2018)
Nigeria's federal government will "bring National Film and Video Censorship Board to the table." [Note: Nigeria's "Nollywood" claims to be the world's second most prolific film industry, after India's. See https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/nollywood-second-largest-film-industry.]
Read more...
2017
Stranger Things: How Dacre Montgomery brought Billy the bully to life
Montgomery, who’s not a smoker, had to learn how to make it look convincing. But the Stranger Things cast doesn’t use Hollywood-standard herbal cigarettes: they use real Marlboro Reds. Why? “The smoke plays so much thicker onscreen,” says Montgomery. Plus, he’s fairly certain that co-stars David Harbour and Winona Ryder “just wanted to smoke real cigarettes.” Over the course of a five-hour shoot, Montgomery would go through “three or four packs,” then wake up the next day with a smoke-induced hangover.
Read more...