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Rate Smoking Movies 'R'Certify No Pay-Offs Require Anti-Tobacco Ads Stop Identifying Brands  

March 25 , 2008 — New York State Commissioner of Health urges public to write the six largest U.S. media companies urging them to adopt Smoke Free Movie's four policy solutions

Four of the companies are based in New York.  On February 19, he ran an open letter tho the companies full page advertisements in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. (Read the Commissioner's letters and see the ad, and some of the responses: several health groups, AMA/AMAA, LA Deparment of Public Health, American Academy of Pediatrics, and an entertainment lawyer.) On March 25, he followed up with another ad (and a press statement) urging the public to write the companies. Support the Commissioner by downloading six clip-and-mail messages (PDF) and mailing them. Quick, easy and effective!

While you are at it, you can email Commissioner Daines to thank him for his leadership by clicking here.

The U.S. film industry can take four simple steps to substantially reduce the impact of adolescent exposure to smoking on screen. None of these steps requires government action. None restricts creative choices. All are voluntary and transparent. All are based on the published research. Together, they will avert tobacco addiction, disease and death on a massive scale.

1. Rate new smoking movies "R".
Any film that shows or implies tobacco should be rated "R." The only exceptions should be when the presentation of tobacco clearly and unambiguously reflects the dangers and consequences of tobacco use or is necessary to represent the smoking of a real historical figure.

2. Certify no pay-offs.
The producers should post a certificate in the closing credits declaring that nobody on the production received anything of value (cash money, free cigarettes or other gifts, free publicity, interest-free loans or anything else) from anyone in exchange for using or displaying tobacco.

3. Require strong anti-smoking ads.
Studios and theaters should run a proven-effective anti-smoking ad (not produced by a tobacco company) to run before any film with any tobacco presence, in any distribution channel, regardless of its MPAA rating.

4. Stop identifying tobacco brands.
There should be no tobacco brand identification nor the presence of tobacco brand imagery (such as billboards) in the background of any movie scene.

A g rowing majority supports smokefree movie policies

As of February, 2007, eighty-one percent of adults in the United States agreed adolescents are more likely to smoke if they watch actors smoke in movies, and 70 percent support a new R-rating for any movies with on-screen tobacco imagery, unless the film clearly demonstrates the dangers of smoking.

The Social Climate Survey of Tobacco Control is an annual poll of public attitudes about tobacco control policies. According to the report (PDF):

  • Support for an ‘R’-rating for movies with tobacco that fail to portray its health risks jumped nearly 12 percentage points between 2005 and 2006.
  • Two-thirds of adults want movie theaters to show anti-tobacco spots before any film with tobacco images, up more than five percentage points from the year before.
  • More than 60 percent of adults want tobacco branding out of all movie scenes, a rise of nearly seven percentage points from the previous year. 

The four Smoke Free Movies policies are endorsed by:

 


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