Smoking in movies: think of the children!

Forums: Movies, Smoking, Health, Film, Medical
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There's a lot less smoking in the movies these days, a new report shows.

Tobacco use on the silver screen peaked in 2005 and has been on the decline since, according to research that looked at the most popular films from 1991 to 2009.
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Some critics, including Glantz, have pushed for an automatic R rating for films that depict smoking, to serve as an economic incentive to drop tobacco use from their movies to get a less restrictive rating.

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As we all know, teenagers will mimic anything that they see in the movies according to the scientific principle of "monkey see, monkey do." That's why, for instance, you saw so many teenagers transforming themselves into autobots last summer. But should any cinematic depiction of smoking automatically earn a movie an R rating?

[an R rating, for you non-USAmericans, means "restricted access:" Children under 17 are not allowed to attend R-rated motion pictures unaccompanied by a parent or adult guardian.]

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Type: Discussion • Score: 19 • Views: 7,255 • Replies: 48

goofy.

1 Reply

@dyslexia,

http://frederatorblogs.com/channel_frederator/files/2008/04/nosmoking.jpg

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By this logic all kids would be trim and fit since you hardly ever see fat people in movies.

1 Reply

@joefromchicago,

What I find strange is that smoking peaked in 2005. Clearly they should have bothered to go back to the 70's when every character smoked.

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I say we use teenagers' inclination to buy a pack of smokes immediately after leaving the theater to make the world a better place, given the associative nature of the addiction.

Listen: keep smoking in films, but depict smokers attending bible study. Imagine Zac Effron asking his friends to turn to Ephesians, a Camel dangling from the corner of his mouth. Or Lindsay Lohan alternately blowing smoke rings and blowing on the piping hot microwave meal she's just heated up for a sweet old lady at the nursing home where Lindsay volunteers.

You know, it would be like taking lemons and making...I don't know, something sweet. Hot chocolate I guess. Or, wait, lemonade. Yeah, it would be like taking lemons and making lemonade.

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@joefromchicago,

Yeah I heard about this the other day. Another case of blaming some one else and not taking accountability for yourself or your children. Although I detest smoking and almost anything banning it, I am for - this is just plain old dumb.

How about taking with your children about not smoking or maybe not smoking yourself as a parent? Anyone ever think about that?

Funny thing, my parents both smoked and they drilled it into us kids (4 of us) not to smoke. And you know what? No of us smoke! Funny how if you raise your children and teach them, they are not influenced by movies.

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@Linkat,

I saw this film about psychics when I was only 17, I've been going to a sibyl ever since. 10% of my pre-tax income goes directly to my sibyl (another 10% goes for whisky)

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@engineer,

engineer wrote:

What I find strange is that smoking peaked in 2005. Clearly they should have bothered to go back to the 70's when every character smoked.

The 1970s? What about the 1940s? If movies that depict smoking should get an R rating, then films like Casablanca or Now Voyager should get an NC-17.

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@Linkat,

Quote:

Another case of blaming some one else and not taking accountability for yourself or your children

All well and good but when the tobacco companies paid the movies producers to placed smoking scenes in movies completely out of content I get highly annoy.

I am paying to be entrained, not to watch a damn smoking adv in the middle of a movie.

My Best Friend Wedding have such a completely out of content smoking scene that I found annoying enough to write a complained to the movie company.

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Tatum O'neal in Paper Moon (1973)

http://i471.photobucket.com/albums/rr73/djjd1962/tatum.jpg

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@joefromchicago,

joefromchicago wrote:

engineer wrote:

What I find strange is that smoking peaked in 2005. Clearly they should have bothered to go back to the 70's when every character smoked.

The 1970s? What about the 1940s? If movies that depict smoking should get an R rating, then films like Casablanca or Now Voyager should get an NC-17.

That's exactly what I was thinking when I read your initial post.

2005?

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@BillRM,

BillRM wrote:

I am paying to be entrained, not to watch a damn smoking adv in the middle of a movie.

100% agreed!

Why is it necessary to have people seen as smoking in a film, anyways? What attracts me to a good movie, is the plot, not other garbage.

1 Reply

@Reyn,

but people do smoke, maybe not as much as they used to, but they do

1 Reply

@djjd62,

Don't care. Doesn't mean I need to see it.

I know folks wipe their butts, too. Don't really want to see that in a movie, and it certainly wouldn't enhance the plot.

It's all like the gratuitous bedroom scenes that get put in some movies.

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@Reyn,

what about a biopic of Churchill's life, shouldn't he be seen smoking a cigar?

1 Reply

@Reyn,

I agree - what I object to is that by giving this an "R" rating because of smoking it is going to prevent kids from starting to smoke. To me, that is all b-s

1 Reply

Daggum good thing movies don't show violence or criminal behavior, that's all I've got to say about it.

1 Reply

@Linkat,

Quote:

I agree - what I object to is that by giving this an "R" rating because of smoking it is going to prevent kids from starting to smoke. To me, that is all b-s

Strange the tobacco firms who paid to have smoking scenes in movies seem to disagree with you to the tune of millions.

1 Reply

@BillRM,

BillRM wrote:

Quote:
I agree - what I object to is that by giving this an "R" rating because of smoking it is going to prevent kids from starting to smoke. To me, that is all b-s

Strange the tobacco firms who paid to have smoking scenes in movies seem to disagree with you to the tune of millions.

What evidence have u of this ??

3 Replies

Smoking in movies: think of the children!

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