Smoke Free Movies has launched a series of print advertisements in Variety and other publications. This advertisement first ran in Variety on November 6, 2007.

Correction: In preparing this material, an arithmetic error led to a substantial underestimate of PG-13 tobacco impressions May-October 2006 and the conclusion that PG-13 tobacco impressions had tripled in May-October 2007, compared to the same period the year before. 2007 PG-13 impressions for these months, which were correctly reported, actually were slightly lower than in 2006. We regret the error. A correction was published in the 48th Smoke Free Movies ad.

What difference has MPAA’s rating announcement made?

Youth-rated movies are more dangerous than before.

In the five months since the MPAA announced that it was “considering” all smoking in its film ratings, what exactly has happened?

70 percent of tobacco impressions were delivered by kid-rated films.

Since the MPAA’s announcement on May 10, top box office films have delivered at least 6.5 billion tobacco impressions to theater audiences of all ages. More than 70 percent have come from youth-rated movies; 60% from films rated PG-13.

PG-13 films delivered three times more tobacco impressions than last year.

Since May, G/PG films delivered twice the tobacco impressions and PG-13 movies triple the number delivered in comparable periods before the MPAA’s announcement.

While the MPAA said it “may” up-rate movies for smoking, in practice it up-rated just one movie for tobaco imagery in this period—from G to PG.

Nor has the MPAA applied its tobacco ratings in a way parents can rely upon. The PG-13 for December Boys (Time Warner) gave “underage...smoking” as a reason. The PG-13 for The Simpsons Movie (News Corp.) said nothing.

The MPAA rejected the real rating policy that would reduce teen exposure and save lives: R-rate future smoking.

Every month without the R-rating means five thousand more tobacco deaths in the U.S. alone.

Health authorities condemn the MPAA’s present rating scheme as a “placebo” policy. But Hollywood knows better than anyone else the difference between real and fake.

Who do you think is blocking real change? Who wants to keep tobacco in G/PG/PG-13 movies?

[CHARTS]

Millions of tobacco impressions delivered May-October by top box office films rated (G/PG and PG-13)...

Top box office G/PG films released May-October 2007 delivered an estimated 754 million tobacco impressions, twice the impressions in the same months of 2006. PG-13 films delivered 3.99 billion impressions, three times the number a year ago, before the MPAA announcement.

[POSTERS]

Of 23 kid-rated films with tobacco released May-October, these three carried new MPAA tobacco descriptors. Another film that went straight to video was up-rated from G to PG.

[POSTERS]

Hairspray (PG, 2007) featured more smoking than Hairspray (PG, 1988)

Read the full ratings review at SmokeFreeMovies.ucsf.edu

Smoke Free Movie policies—the R-rating, certification of no payoffs, anti-tobacco spots and an end to brand display—are endorsed by the World Health Organization, American Medical Association, AMA Alliance, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Heart Association, American Legacy Foundation, American Lung Association, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Society for Adolescent Medicine, Los Angeles County Dept. of Health Services, and others. This project is supported by the Arimathea Fund of the Tides Foundation and other donors. To explore this critical health issue, visit our web site or write: Smoke Free Movies, UCSF School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA 94143-1390.