News
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2019
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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Crack down on film poster
A Telugu-language film's poster shows the star smoking. Karnataka's state tobacco control office has cited this violation of national rules and plans a "sensitization" program for local film producers and exhibitors in lieu of penalties. The state's capital is Bengaluru (Bangalore), India's high-tech hub.
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Should movies that feature smoking be for adults only?
Robert Schwartz is the director of the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit and one of the authors of a study that estimates 185,000 people aged 17 or younger [in Ontario] will become smokers because of seeing people smoke on-screen. [6-minute audio segment]
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Kids widely exposed to smoking in movies
More than half of the top-grossing movies in Ontario in the past 16 years featured smoking, according to University of Toronto researchers with the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit -- and most of these films were rated as acceptable for youth.
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Smoking imagery study sparks change
| AAFP News (17 Jul 2019)
For the second year in a row, Netflix, the most commonly watched streaming service among those ages 15-24, topped the list — nearly tripling its number of tobacco incidents (866) compared with the previous year's report (299).
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Gears 5 will exclude smoking depictions after concerns raised by youth anti-tobacco org
News that “Gears 5” is stubbing out smoking comes after Netflix last week said it will cut out tobacco imagery in its originals rated for younger viewers, with the exception of maintaining “historical or factual accuracy.” That came after Truth released a report finding that tobacco use in TV series popular among those aged 15-24 had surged in the past year — and that Netflix original series “Stranger Things” and “Orange Is the New Black” among the worst offenders for showing smoking.
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