Smoking in movies encourages young people to pick up the habit: report
Last Updated: Thursday, August 21, 2008 | 5:35 PM ET
CBC News
Tobacco marketing and depictions of smoking in movies encourage young people to smoke, says a report released Thursday by U.S. National Cancer Institute.
The report also found that cigarettes are one of the most heavily marketed products in the U.S.
Entitled The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use, the report said American cigarette manufacturers spent about $13.5 billion in 2005 on cigarette advertising and promotion. That's $37 million a day.
Dr. Ronald Davis, senior scientific editor of the report and past president of the American Medical Association, told a news conference in Chicago that the report has two "definitive" conclusions: that tobacco advertising and promotion are "causally related" to increased tobacco use, and that depictions of smoking in movies is "causally related" to youth smoking initiation.
Davis said it is the first government report to reach those conclusions.
"The media have been used to promote cigarettes and smoking through infamous advertising icons, such as the Marlboro Man and Joe Camel, and through tobacco images in Hollywood movies," he said.
"The media have also been used to increase smoking cessation and reduce smoking initiation, through paid advertising campaigns and public service announcements about the dangers of smoking."
Davis said the report "presents the most current and comprehensive analysis of the scientific evidence on the impact of these forces, and other media exposures, on beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours concerning tobacco use."
It analyzed more than 1,000 scientific studies on the role of the media in encouraging and discouraging tobacco use.
The report concludes that mass media campaigns can reduce smoking, especially when combined with tobacco control strategies.
But the report says youth smoking prevention campaigns sponsored by the tobacco industry have mostly been ineffective and may have increased youth smoking.
The report also found:
- Much tobacco advertising targets the psychological needs of adolescents, such as popularity, peer acceptance and positive self-image. Advertising creates the perception that smoking will satisfy these needs.
- Even brief exposure to tobacco advertising influences adolescents' attitudes and perceptions about smoking and smokers, and adolescents' intentions to smoke.
- The depiction of cigarette smoking is pervasive in movies, occurring in three-quarters or more of contemporary box-office hits. Identifiable cigarette brands appear in about one-third of movies.
- When enshrined in law, a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising and promotion is an effective policy intervention that prevents tobacco companies from shifting marketing expenditures to permitted media.
The tobacco industry works hard to impede tobacco control media campaigns, including attempts to prevent or reduce their funding.
The report outlines several ways that have been proposed to reduce use of the media in promoting tobacco use and increase its use in discouraging tobacco use. These include:
- Impose a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising and promotion.
- Adequately fund mass media campaigns and protect them from tobacco industry efforts to impede them.
- Monitor tobacco industry activities including public relations and advertising expenditures in a changing media environment.
- Use research to inform tobacco control policy and program decisions.
- Place anti-tobacco advertisements before films to partially counter the impact of tobacco portrayals in movies.
- Increase public awareness of tobacco industry attempts to shut down public health campaigns.
"This report sends a loud and clear message to policy-makers: We need less tobacco company marketing and more anti-tobacco advertising," said William Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, based in Washington, D.C., in a news release.
"It shows why we need strong regulation of tobacco products and their marketing to prevent tobacco companies from continuing to target our children. It also should prompt states to fully fund tobacco prevention and cessation campaigns that are proven to work. And it should spur governments worldwide to implement the international tobacco control treaty, which calls on governments to ban all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and fund effective public education campaigns."
Lindsay Doran, a Hollywood producer and an advocate for keeping smoking out of films seen by youth, said in a news release that the report is significant.
"I'm very glad that the federal government has thrown its weight behind this important issue," she said.
"Filmmakers are usually very concerned with issues of social responsibility — that's what many of our best films are about. But they need more education, especially about the very young age at which most people start to smoke, and more proof that the smoking in our movies and TV shows, if presented irresponsibly, can actually be the same as handing a 12-year-old a cigarette. Today's announcement should go a long way towards providing that proof."
