Tobacco At The Movies: Tobacco Use In PG-13 Films

10/29/2002

Executive 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.4 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.

• Several films showed identifiable, brand name cigarette packs.The Perfect Storm, Meet the Parents, and The Family Man. According to the MSA, brand-name tobacco use in films is forbidden. Although the name of the cigarette brand was obscured, the packaging design clearly identified the cigarettes as a particular brand. These movies were

• 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.

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.