CDC Study Recommends R Rating for Movie Smoking

Seeing depictions of smoking in movies increases the probability that youths will start smoking themselves, says a recent report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Youth who are heavily exposed to such imagery are two to three times more likely to take up smoking, compared to youth that are lightly exposed.

The findings are detailed in a report by the CDC released July 15; an update to an earlier report released in 2010.

A key part of the report is the amount of state subsidies that go toward attracting movie production, totaling $1 billion each year. The top 15 states providing subsidies spent more in 2010 for productions—$288 million—than they budgeted for their state tobacco-control programs, $280 million.

In these pressing economic times, when states “are cutting teachers, firemen, ... [and] everything imaginable, for states to give movies with smoking [such] subsidies, is obscene,” said Stanton Glantz, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and a corresponding contributor to the recent CDC report, in a phone interview with The Epoch Times.

The report recommends that state and local health departments work with state policy makers to limit subsidies, only providing funding to tobacco-free movies.

Incidentally, the number of smoking incidents in top-grossing movies has been steadily decreasing since 2005, especially those directed toward youth (G, PG, and PG-13).

The decrease in smoking incidents comes since three of the six motion picture companies that make up the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) have implemented policies that have limited “unimportant” smoking incidents in films directed toward youth.

The percentage drop since that time is 95.8 percent in movies from the three companies with policies, compared with a 41.7 percent drop for the other three major motion picture studios, and independent companies.

The report recommends multiple measures to further reduce youth exposure to smoking on-screen. The CDC suggests that the MPAA give any movie with tobacco incidents an “R” rating, with the exceptions of movies that portray historical figures that smoked, and those that display the negative effects of tobacco use.

Elizabeth Kaltman, vice president of Corporate Communications for MPAA, said in a phone interview, “The studios and the industry takes this seriously,” and that they have all made efforts to reduce smoking incidents in films.

However, “The purpose of the movie rating system is not to prevent material from ending up on screen ... [it] is to provide information to parents about what’s appropriate for their own children. They provide information and descriptors,” she said.

As an example of a recent public debate, Glantz disagreed with Avatar director James Cameron’s choice of a main character smoking in the movie, saying it was unnecessary. Cameron responded by saying that the character was not meant to be a role model, and that movies should reflect reality.

As a former employee of NASA, Glantz said over the phone that that point is defeated by the character smoking in a type of rocket ship, which was unrealistic.

During the 20th century, the tobacco industry worked to influence public perception toward the idea that smoking was actually beneficial.

The marketing and cultural acceptance included early Lucky Strike advertisements aimed toward women that would “help keep a slender figure,” and charismatic television and film characters in multiple scenes with cigarette in hand, which gained prevalence starting in the 1920s.

With increased public awareness nowadays, the issue has reached a new battleground, in which the line between realistic use of smoking and subtle advertisement in film has become blurred.