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New Report Shows Some Progress in Reducing Youth Exposure to Smoking in Films

2/25/2009

Statement by Cheryl G. Healton, President and CEO, American Legacy Foundation®

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new report released this month, Smoking Presentation Trends in U.S. Movies 1991-2008, indicates that tobacco exposure incidents per film have decreased by about half since 2005. However, smoking imagery on film still remains a problem. While the fraction of all films that are smoke free has been growing since the late 1990s, it still remains below 50%, even for youth-rated (G/PG/PG13) films, leaving a majority of movies with smoking. In fact, most youth exposure to on-screen smoking occurs in youth-rated films. In 2008, PG13-rated films delivered 65 percent of on-screen tobacco impressions.

The report was conducted by Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails and the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education University of California, San Francisco.

Despite the initial progress this report indicates, there is still much work to be done. What the American Legacy Foundation supports – along with a host of other organizations – are evidence-based policies that will limit or eliminate smoking on the screen, including: the elimination of smoking from G, PG and PG13 films by rating movies R if they contain smoking, with the exception of when tobacco use and its dangers and consequences are accurately portrayed or when it is necessary to portray the actual smoking habits of a real historical figure; certification of no pay-offs, by posting a certificate in movie credits declaring that no talent or members of the production team received anything in exchange for using or displaying tobacco; ending the identification of tobacco brands in any movies scenes and requiring strong anti-smoking ads to run before films with any tobacco presence regardless of its rating.

The Walt Disney Company deserves a special recognition for their role in helping reduce tobacco imagery from movies. This report indicates that smoking images have nearly disappeared from Disney’s G- and PG-rated films. Fox has also made progress, where in three of the past five years, 66 percent of the company’s youth-rated films have been smoke-free.

The American Legacy Foundation^® is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use, especially among vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco, through grants, technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns. The Foundation’s programs include truth^®, a national youth smoking prevention campaign that has been cited as contributing to significant declines in youth smoking; EX^®, an innovative public health program designed to speak to smokers in their own language and change the way they approach quitting; research initiatives exploring the causes, consequences and approaches to reducing tobacco use; and a nationally-renowned program of outreach to priority populations. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. Visit http://www.americanlegacy.org.

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Contact: Laura Cruzada, 202-341-0324, lcruzada@americanlegacy.org