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2018
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.]
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Indian gov't mulls online anti-tobacco rules
[Given tobacco imagery in Neflix' first original Indian series, Sacred Games:] A health ministry official said, “Currently, sites that stream online content are not required to carry health warnings on tobacco. But after the recent decision to ratify the FCTC protocol against illicit tobacco trade we are looking at FCTC provisions dealing with cross-border tobacco advertisements.”
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Ethan Hawke thinks "Before" characters could be back
The 'First Reformed' star admitted his "heart broke" when he realised his grandfather's insistence that smoking in movies inspired people to adopt the habit was true, but he's still against censoring real life on film. [Note: Ethan Hawke has smoked in each of his six top-grossing films since 2002, all but one R-rated. The Magnificent Seven (2016, Sony) was rated PG-13.]
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Sarath Kumar fumes over TV debates on smoking scene in Vijay starrer
Tamil actor-turned-politician Sarath Kumar has expressed his ire over the TV channels holding debates on "smoking scenes in movies." After the release of the first look of Thalapathy Vijay's SARKAR, PMK founder Anbumani Ramadoss slammed it as the lead actor Vijay posed smoking a cigarette. He said it promoted smoking and a similar stand was taken by the Tamil Nadu People's Forum for Tobacco Control. The Tamil TV channels picked this issue and starting holding debates on smoking scenes in movies and their impact.
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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.
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