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 Tobacco
At The Movies: Tobacco Use In PG-13 Films
MASSPIRG Education Fund
Summary
| News Release
Download the full report.
(PDF, 300 KB)
Download the letter to the Motion Picture Association
of America's Jack Valenti from U.S. PIRG. (PDF, 17 KB)
Latest
ad in the Smoke
Free Movies campaign to run in Hollywood's "Daily Variety" on October
30 incorporates MASSPIRG findings. Click on the ad on the left to see a
bigger image. (PDF)
Summary
Contrary to the expected
decrease of tobacco use in films following the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement
(MSA) between the tobacco industry and 46 states 1
, tobacco use in the most popular youth-oriented movies has actually increased
by 50 percent.
The MSA holds tobacco companies
accountable for their actions. They must pay restitution to 46 states for healthcare
costs incurred from tobacco-caused illnesses. Additionally, tobacco companies
must cease marketing practices that target minors and cannot make payments to
Hollywood to get brand name tobacco products placed in movies.2
Despite this agreement, tobacco products and their use have increasingly found
their way into movies geared toward and accessible to teenagers. This report
compares the incidence of tobacco use and brand appearance in PG-13 movies in
the two years before (1996, 1997) and after (1999, 2000) the settlement.
The report found:
1. Smoking in the most popular,
youth-oriented, PG-13 movies is up since the tobacco settlement.
2. Teenagers are more readily
influenced by tobacco ads and/or use in films than other age groups.
3. Tobacco companies stand
to benefit financially from individuals who start to use tobacco at an early
age; 90 percent of all adult smokers begin before they are 18.
4. Tobacco companies have
violated the tobacco settlement in other ways and have a long history of marketing
their products toward young and underage persons. In June, 2002, RJ Reynolds
was fined for continuing to advertise in magazines with high youth readership.
Specifically:
• Tobacco use is up 50
percent in post-settlement films. Of the films showing tobacco use, they
averaged 1,288 frames of tobacco use before the settlement and 1,938 frames
after the settlement. This translates into an average of 0.89 minutes of tobacco
use in pre-settlement films versus 1.35 minutes post-settlement.3
• Tobacco use remains
prevalent in PG-13, youth-oriented movies. Eighty-two percent (18 of 22)
of post-settlement movies and 80 percent (16 of 20) of pre-settlement movies
contained tobacco use.
• Most films portray
smokers and smoking in a positive or neutral light. Eighty-three percent
(15 of 18) of post-settlement movies with tobacco use showed characters with
either positive or neutral attitudes toward smoking, conveying the perception
that smoking is acceptable and even “cool.” Some movies, like The Family
Man, showed smoking in a festive atmosphere during a Christmas party, while
others, like What Women Want, showed smoking as relaxing and calming.
In Notting Hill, a supporting character with a positive connotation announces
that she has given up smoking, her “favorite thing,” but in the end lights up
again anyway.
• Fewer films feature
negative statements about tobacco use. Before the settlement, 31 percent
(5 of 16) of movies showed tobacco use as a negative; post-settlement that number
fell to 17 percent (3 of 18). However, even negative 3 “In contrast to the health
groups, who saw smoking as a medical issue, the tobacco industry has always
seen smoking as a cultural issue. And there is not a better way to control pop
culture worldwide than through movies. Tobacco mass marketing and Hollywood
pop culture grew up together, businesslike twins joined at the hip. For 80 years
the tobacco industry has addicted hundreds of millions of men and women with
the he help of Hollywood movies – and later, TV – that portrayed smoking as
glamorous, sexy, adult.” –Professor Stanton Glantz, Los Angeles Times column,
2 June 2001. portrayals of smoking in film have been shown to increase propensity
for youth smoking.4
• Several films showed
identifiable, brand name cigarette packs. Although the name of the cigarette
brand was obscured, the packaging design clearly identified the cigarettes as
a particular brand. These movies were The Perfect Storm, Meet the
Parents, and The Family Man. According to the MSA, brand-name tobacco
use in films is forbidden.
• Big name stars smoked
in both pre- and post-settlement films. Post-settlement on-screen smokers
included Mel Gibson, Nicolas Cage, Ben Stiller, Drew Barrymore, Mark Wahlberg,
Eddie Murphy, Hugh Jackman, Will Smith, Kevin Kline, and Kenneth Branagh. Pre-settlement
on-screen smokers included Julia Roberts, Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Leonardo
DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Tommy Lee Jones, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“In contrast to
the health groups, who saw smoking as a medical issue, the tobacco industry
has always seen smoking as a cultural issue. And there is not a better
way to control pop culture worldwide than through movies. Tobacco mass
marketing and Hollywood pop culture grew up together, businesslike twins
joined at the hip. For 80 years the tobacco industry has addicted hundreds
of millions of men and women with the he help of Hollywood movies – and
later, TV – that portrayed smoking as glamorous, sexy, adult.”
–Professor Stanton
Glantz, Los Angeles Times column, 2 June 2001.
Studies have shown that
young people are influenced by the smoking behavior of their favorite stars,
both on and off the screen. As a result, the tobacco industry once regularly
paid movie studios to display their brands in feature films prior to the settlement,
a practice now forbidden. However, the continued – and increased – prevalence
of tobacco use in youth-oriented movies following the settlement raises questions
about the ability of tobacco companies to circumvent the MSA terms that curtailed
the display of tobacco use in feature films.
To counter the detrimental
effect on youth, Hollywood must restrict tobacco use in films. States also must
enforce the terms of the settlement and fund tobacco control and prevention
efforts that present young people with the true facts about smoking and health.
This report builds on the
work of Professor Stanton Glantz of the School of Medicine, University of California
at San Franciso, particularly his report “How the Tobacco Industry Built Its
Relationship with Hollywood.”5 In that report, Glantz examines tobacco industry
files to unearth the planned and methodical placement of tobacco products in
film and television to increase product sales.
This report differs from
Glantz’s because it looks only at movies that target minors and compares the
amount of tobacco use in pre- and post-settlement PG-13 films.
Significantly, although
the reports use different methodologies to quantify smoking in movies, they
come to the same conclusion: Hollywood and the tobacco industry continue to
addict children to smoking.
Notes
1 http://www.naag.org/tobac/tobagr.htm.
Accessed August 8, 2002.
2 G. Kelder, “Consent Decrees
and Judgments: in G. Kelger and P. Davidson, eds. The Mulitstate Master Settlement
Agreement and the Future of State and Local Tobacco Control: An Analysis of
Selected Topics and Provisions of the Multistate Master Settlement Agreement
of November 23, 1998. (Commissioned and Funded by the American Cancer Society)
(March 23, 1999).
3 24 frames are projected
per second. http://www.howstuffworks.com
and http://www.24framespersecond.com.
Accessed July 22, 2002.
4 http://smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu/news/text_glantzLATimesOpEd.html,
Accessed October 1, 2002.
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