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Smoking rabidly promoted in movies Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/13330795.htm?source=rss&channel=mercurynews_localhttp://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/13330795.htm?source=rss&channel=mercurynews_local
Posted on Mon, Dec. 05, 2005
Smoke thickens on silver screen
RESEARCHERS WARN OF COPYCAT TEENS
By Lisa M. Krieger and Glennda Chui
Mercury News
Smoking is back in vogue in the movies -- especially films rated for young audiences -- and that's bad news for efforts to keep teens from lighting up.
How bad? Very bad, according to researchers at the University of California-San Francisco who examined almost 60 studies on smoking in the movies and among teenagers.
Nearly 80 percent of American movies rated PG-13 contain tobacco scenes -- from ``Anchorman'' to ``Ocean's 12.'' And while the number of smoke-filled scenes in all U.S. films declined for decades, it's back up to levels not seen since the 1950s.
On-screen smoking is part of the reason 390,000 U.S. teenagers try their first cigarette each year, according to a report by UC-San Francisco's Stanton Glantz and Annemarie Charlesworth in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics. That's half of all new teen smokers.
The researchers urge an R rating for films that depict smoking, echoing a previous recommendation by the American Medical Association, the National PTA, the attorneys general of 32 states and a growing number of other groups.
``The science is very solid. Smoking in the movies has a very substantial effect on the risk that kids will get addicted to nicotine,'' Glantz said.
Speaking for the Motion Picture Association of America, Gayle Osterberg said industry statistics show only about half of PG-13 movies over the past two years featured tobacco use.
``Everybody agrees that smoking is a serious health problem and that our industry shouldn't be encouraging or glamorizing smoking,'' she said.
In the new study, Glantz and Charlesworth collected the results of 59 studies -- 42 on smoking in the movies and 17 more on teen smoking -- to examine the influence of smoking on-screen. Taken together, the evidence shows that smoking in the movies promotes adolescent smoking, they concluded.
The findings include:
• Nearly four out of five PG-13 movies show someone -- usually a major character -- smoking cigarettes or cigars or chewing tobacco.
• Only about half as many people in the United States smoke as did in 1950 -- but that's not true on the silver screen. A sample of top-grossing films over the past 50 years found that the amount of smoking decreased from an average of 10.7 events an hour in 1950 to a low of 4.9 in 1982 -- and then shot up to 10.9 by 2002. (Events range from a character lighting a cigarette to a shot of a tobacco advertisement.)
• Because on-screen smokers are adults, teens see their behavior as sophisticated and something to emulate. And while smokers in real life tend to be of lower socioeconomic status, smokers on-screen are primarily white males from upper income brackets.
The researchers point to popular actor Jude Law, who smokes in ``Closer,'' ``Alfie'' and ``The Aviator.'' Nearly every major character lights up in the Will Ferrell comedy ``Anchorman.''
Hollywood heartthrobs Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts have lit up on screen. The animated character Hercules puffs on a cigar in Disney's G-rated ``Hercules.'' Even aliens pack Marlboros in ``Men In Black'' and ``Men in Black II,'' both of which are rated PG-13.
The UC-San Francisco researchers and anti-smoking advocates say all those movies should be rated R. They're seeking voluntary compliance.
``This doesn't mean that `Men In Black' and `Men In Black II' can't promote Marlboro,'' Glantz said. ``It means that if Steven Spielberg wants them to have a PG-13 rating, he'll need to cut out the promotions.''
Osterberg, of the motion picture association, said that ``tying a rating to any single item is a bit of a slippery slope, because there are all kinds of behaviors parents find objectionable.''
But Kori Titus, director of an American Lung Association program in Sacramento that has teenagers monitor tobacco use in 250 to 300 movies each year, said kids often don't see things as adults do.
``What we may consider the bad guy, often they have traits these teenagers want to emulate,'' she said. ``They're edgy, they're hip and yes, they're smoking on-screen.''
Over the past 11 years, Titus said, 75 percent of the most popular PG-13 movies featured tobacco use. Last year alone, 77 percent of PG-13 movies and 9 percent of PG movies -- including the animated hit ``The Incredibles'' -- had characters who used tobacco.
Kaitlin Kelly-Reif, 17, of Sacramento has been reviewing movies for the project -- called Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! -- for four years. She notes not only how many times tobacco appears, but whether it's portrayed as sexy or cool, denotes wealth or power, or is mentioned by brand.
``I think it's been really helpful for me overall, because I'm more aware of what I'm watching, and how Hollywood uses certain tools such as tobacco,'' Kaitlin said. ``Also that tobacco is not something that's cool -- it's something Hollywood says is cool.''
The UC-San Francisco researchers would make exceptions to the R rating for films, such as ``Constantine,'' that show the dangers of smoking.
And, they'd exempt others, such as ``Good Night, and Good Luck,'' which realistically portrays the smoke-filled 1950s-era TV newsroom of Edward R. Murrow. ``The cigarette was a defining part of the persona of Edward Murrow, who ended up dying of lung cancer,'' Glantz said.
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IF YOU'RE INTERESTED
Information and ratings from the Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! project are at http://scenesmoking.org.
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Contact Lisa M. Krieger at lkrieger@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5565.
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