Movies Influence Half of All New Teen Smokers to Start Smoking

Experts estimate that movies with tobacco imagery influence half of all new teen smokers to start smoking. This means that Hollywood recruits approximately 390,000 new youth smokers each year, nearly enough to replace all of the smokers the tobacco industry kills on a yearly basis.1  Movies are used to both promote tobacco brands and to “advertise” the acceptability of the act of smoking. Most Prevention Network News readers will recognize this as one form of “product placement” that they have been talking about in the context of media literacy for several years. It is an increasingly common form of promotion for many kinds of products. Tobacco promotion in movies and its effects include:

Ø      Current movie heroes are three to four times more likely to smoke than are people in real life.

Ø      Young people in the United States watch an average of three movies a week, which contain an average of five smoking episodes each, adding up to about 15 exposures to smoking a week. Young people may be exposed to more smoking in movies than in real life.

Ø      A teen whose favorite star smokes is significantly more likely to be a smoker.

Ø      Approximately two-thirds of films seen today show tobacco use, including films that are rated PG or PG-13 and intended for young audiences.

Ø      Films depicting tobacco use are increasing and are reinforcing misleading perceptions that smoking is a widespread, socially desirable, and normal behavior, and they fail to convey the long-term consequences of tobacco use. 

These facts are taken from the curriculum accompanying a one-hour documentary video called Scene Smoking – Cigarettes, Cinema & the Myth of Cool that discusses the issue of smoking in film and television.2  This video is suitable for adults and mature high school students and is available from Prevention Network.  Parents taking their children to the movies or checking out a DVD for their children to watch do not know whether smoking will appear in the film. The current movie rating system does not prevent children from seeing smoking in movies. About 60 percent of youth exposure to smoking in movies is from G, PG, or PG-13 rated movies.  This problem of tobacco in Hollywood has an answer: demand future youth-rated films be tobacco-free and break the ties between the entertainment and tobacco industries.  Stan Glantz, Ph.D., professor of medicine at the University of California , San Francisco , led the way when he founded the Smoke Free Movies campaign. 

The Smoke Free Movies movement proposes four solutions that the U.S. film industry can implement to change the irresponsible use of tobacco on screen: Rate new movies that portray smoking an “R”; certify no pay-offs; require strong antismoking ads; stop identifying tobacco brands in movies.  Following the lead of Dr. Glantz, the New York State Department of Health and the University of California developed “Screen Out!” as the national action program to achieve the solutions of the Smoke Free Movies movement. 

In October 2006, the American Legacy Foundation awarded the American Medical Association Alliance a $500,000 grant to mobilize grassroots groups and individuals to demand the four proposed solutions. The goals of the three-year public awareness campaign are: 

1. Write 800 letters to the Motion Picture Association of America and other decision makers.
2. Gather 750,000 petition signatures in support of the four solutions set forth by the Screen Out! Campaign.
3. Garner 1,500 Screen Out! Endorsements from parent, political, health, and school based organizations.

This is where YOU and your group enter the picture.

At the very least, visit www.screenout.org, download a petition, circulate it at work, family events PTSA meeting, temple/ church/mosque, or health fair, book club…you get the idea. Return the filled petition to Mary Lou D. Mathias, volunteer coordinator for the Michigan State Medical Society Alliance, at 5118 Dye Hill Court , Flint , Michigan , 48532 . Mary Lou will count the signatures to track Michigan ’s efforts, and make copies to send to the National Office and the movie industry representatives.  Just to give you a little encouragement, Disney has already agreed to take smoking out of all of the movies it produces in the future!

Want to do more than just circulate petitions?  Visit www.screenout.org for directions on how to write letters, op Ed pieces for your newspaper, and endorse the Screen Out! Campaign. There is a 20-page resource packet to help you do these and other activities.  If you have questions or cannot access web resources you may call Mary Lou at (810) 732-2053 (home number) or Marie Hansen at Prevention Network, 800-968-4968. 

1 Dalton MA , Sargent JD, et al. Effect of viewing smoking in movies on adolescent smoking initiation: A cohort study. The Lancet 2003; 362 (9380): 281-85.  2 This documentary film by Terry Maloney was produced by the American Lung Association of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails under a grant provided by the California Department of Health Services Tobacco Control Section. The U.S. Center for Disease Control made it available nationwide for a while.