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Smoke Free Movies has launched a series of print advertisements in the New York Times and other publications. This advertisement first ran in Variety on March 20, 2002.
Hollywood movies push kids to smoke. What are the directors thinking?
When legal limits on youth tobacco promotions tightened in other media and theaters began enforcing R ratings more strictly, the share of tobacco incidents in movies rated G, PG, and PG13 jumped 300%. Coincidence?
While 2002 Oscar® contender In the Bedroom flashes Marlboros at older teens and adults, most screen smoking in recent top-grossing films has taken place in G, PG and PG13-rated movies. How can parents know if a movie or video sells a powerful addiction that captures most victims by age 18 - and kills a third of them in adulthood?
Carefully controlled studies find that non-smoking teens exposed to frequent smoking on screen are two-and-a-half times more likely to start smoking themselves. And it makes no difference if it's the good guys or bad guys who smoke.
With tobacco ads banned on TV and billboards, and magazine promotion to youth now restricted, Hollywood movies have become one of last major channels for promoting tobacco to young people both in the U.S. and overseas. Big Tobacco publicly promised to halt payoffs to Hollywood in 1989. But movie smoking has skyrocketed since then. Film directors portrayed tobacco in almost 80% of the top 50 films last year. Is this corruption or stupidity?
In recent news stories, directors and studio bosses have blamed it all on spoiled stars. But nothing gets on screen in Hollywood unless the director wants it there.
Example? Russell Crowe didn't smoke in Gladiator. If he lights up in other films, it's only because the film's director invites him to smoke.
What excuse can there be to place a deadly, addictive product in kid-rated movies?
In public health terms, there is no excuse. Smoking and secondhand smoke kill 480,000 Americans every year, 4 million globally.
Since smoking (unlike violence or sex) doesn't sell tickets, there's no box office rationale either.
Yet the MPAA, Hollywood's political lobby, flatly refuses to give parents warning that a movie or video pushes a lethal addiction.
Censorship isn't the answer. If directors think projects are "compromised" unless they shill for Big Tobacco, that's show business.
But let's give children and teens a chance by exercising common sense:
- ROLL ON-SCREEN CREDITS certifying that nobody on a production accepted anything of value from any tobacco company, its agents or fronts. It's time to restore public trust.
- RUN STRONG ANTI-TOBACCO ADS IN FRONT OF SMOKING MOVIES. Put them on tapes and DVDs, too. Strong spots are proven to immunize audiences of all ages.
- QUIT IDENTIFYING TOBACCO BRANDS in the background or in action. Brand names are totally unnecessary.
- RATE EVERY SMOKING MOVIE "R." That will give parents the power to protect their children from the tobacco industry.
Two out of three tobacco shots in the Top 50 movies from April 2000-March 2001 were in kid-rated films.
| Shots/hr* |
Film |
Rating |
Director |
| 33 |
The Perfect Storm |
PG13 |
Wolfgang Petersen |
| 25 |
What Women Want |
PG13 |
Nancy Meyers |
| 23 |
Charlie's Angels |
PG13 |
Joseph McGinty Nichols |
| 19 |
The Family Man |
PG13 |
Brett Ratner |
| 19 |
X-Men |
PG13 |
Bryan Singer |
| 14 |
Vertical Limit |
PG13 |
Martin Campbell |
| 13 |
102 Dalmatians |
G |
Kevin Lima |
| 12 |
Save the Last Dance |
PG13 |
Thomas Carter II |
| 11 |
Road to El Dorado |
PG |
Bibo Bergeron et al. |
| 10 |
Shanghai Noon |
PG13 |
Tom Dey |
|
*Shots including tobacco product, use or reference / total running time. Full list on web site.
Full list of directors at SmokeFreeMovies.ucsf.edu
Smoke Free Movies aims to sharply reduce the film industry's usefulness to Big Tobacco's domestic and global marketing-a leading cause of disability and premature death. This initiative by Stanton Glantz, PhD (coauthor of The Cigarette Papers and Tobacco War), of the UCSF School of Medicine is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund. To learn how you can help, visit our website or write to us: Smoke Free Movies, UCSF School of Medicine, Box 0130, San Francisco, CA 94143-0130.
PMC ® www.publicmediacenter.org
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