SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—Action movie icon turned governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger joined the Entertainment Industry Foundation and various Hollywood studios on Friday—not as a cyborg from the future this time. Gov. Schwarzenegger is helping protect children around the nation from tobacco use by getting anti-smoking ads placed in DVDs of movies that include scenes with smoking.
The Governor joined in an agreement with the California Health and Human Services Agency, the Entertainment Industry Foundation, and major Hollywood studios, including Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, Time Warner, Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney Studios and Twentieth Century Fox to place California’s anti-smoking ads in the opening minutes of DVDs of all new movies with tobacco use that are rated G, PG and PG-13.
“This is a great day for the health and welfare of our young people, and it is another example of what you can accomplish when you bring everyone together for the greater good,” said Gov. Schwarzenegger in a statement. “We will reach millions of young movie viewers with a proven anti-smoking message at no expense to taxpayers.”
The agreements with the studios run through 2009.
Entertainment Industry Foundation President Lisa Paulsen said in a statement that placing some of the most effective anti-smoking ads produced in the country on DVDs will remind viewers that movies are fiction, but the damage smoking does is real.
The studios will begin using four anti-tobacco ads, “Icons,” “Bubbles,” “Programmed,” and “Daddy’s Tape.” The commercials are targeted toward children and will be seen not just by California’s youth, but by those who watch Hollywood movies around the world.
In “Icons,” a contrast is struck with ubiquitous images promoted by the tobacco industry—a cowboy, a hip-hop DJ, and a 1920s-era flapper—replaced with more accurate depiction of the repercussions of smoking: a dying man in a wheelchair who warns: “The reality is you can end up looking like this.”
“Icons” will be the first ad to appear when Sony releases the movie “21” on DVD on July 22.
“Bubbles” features adults in a variety of typical smoking situations holding bubble wands rather than cigarettes, with bubbles floating through the air and a closing message: “Imagine a world without cigarettes.”
“Programmed” juxtaposes a smoker with a laboratory rat, who drinks from a yellow, nicotine-filled water bottle every time the smoker inhales; and “Daddy’s Tape” features a boy supporting his father’s efforts to quit smoking by making him a motivational tape to play in his car.
The nation-wide campaign is targeting youth on three primary strategies: revealing the falsehood of pro-tobacco messages, promoting smoking cessation and educating people about the dangers of second-hand smoke.
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