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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 on November 20, 2002.
One in a Series
The evidence is in. Global and U.S. medical authorities agree. It's time for Hollywood to take smoking in movies dead seriously.
THE
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
"Smoking in the movies is a major problem worldwide
because it represents such a powerful promotional
force...It not only encourages children to begin
smoking but helps reinforce tobacco industry marketing
images...The American motion picture industry plays
a crucial role in creating this problem because
of the worldwide reach of the movies it makes and
its role as exemplar for other filmmakers."
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AMERICAN
MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
Pysicians dedicated to the health of America
"We agree that the use of smoking in movies is often
gratuitous, serving no purpose but to glamorize
and inappropriately reinforce smoking as a desirable
behavior. This is particularly problematic as it
applies to youth, since smoking in movies has been
shown in several studies to be a risk factor for
initiation of smoking by adolescents...We also support
your four policy recommendations to reduce tobacco
use in movies." |
Through corruption or stupidity, Hollywood movies have
become one of Big Tobacco's last major channels to young
people in the U.S. and overseas.
The tobacco industry promised to halt cash payoffs to Hollywood in 1989. Yet smoking on screen has actually increased over the past decade. And, despite the usual denials, it is frequently indistinguishable from paid product placement.
Hollywood's political lobby, the MPAA, flatly refuses to give parents warning that movies or videos promote tobacco addiction, as scientific studies show they do.
Censorship is not the answer. If film directors want to shill for multibillion dollar tobacco corporations for free, that's their business. But tobacco is a business, too, taking more lives in the U.S. than AIDS, violence and illegal drugs combined.
Enough. The World Health Organization, American Medical Association and others - including the L.A. County Department of Health Services and U.S. Public Interest Research Group - urge the film industry to implement these policies now:
- Certify no payoffs. Producers should post
a certificate in the closing credits declaring that
no one on the production received anything of value
in exchange for using or displaying tobacco products.
- Require strong anti-smoking ads. Theaters
and videos should run effective counter-tobacco advertising
before films with any tobacco presence, regardless
of the film's rating.
- Stop identifying tobacco brands. No tobacco
brand identification in movies; no brand images or
ads in action sequences or scene backgrounds.
- Rate new smoking movies "R." The Rating
Board should issue an "R" rating to films that show
smoking or use tobacco advertisements or brand images.
Such films could be rated less severely, however,
if by a special vote the Rating Board feels that the
presentation of tobacco clearly and unambiguously
reflects the dangers and consequences of tobacco use
or accurately represents the smoking behavior of an
actual historical figure, so that a lesser rating
would more responsibly reflect the opinion of American
parents.
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 1390, San Francisco, CA 94143-1390.
Get the whole story at SmokeFreeMovies.ucsf.edu
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