On-screen smoking in movies is coming under attack by the American Lung Associations and the the American Medical Association Alliance. The groups are petitioning the MPAA to issue an automatic R-rating to any movie that shows characters smoking on screen. The exception to the rule would be for biographically stories or movies that have an anti-smoking message.
“Hollywood has been bombarding people with smoking messages for decades,” Paul Billings, vice president of national policy and advocacy for the lung association told USA Today. “But they’re still allowed to send the wrong signal to kids, who are seeing their heroes smoking.”
The protest is in response to a new report that indicates the level of on-screen smoking has increased in the last year. According to the study, out of 617 movies released since 2002, rated G, PG or PG-13, 57% have featured smoking; since 2007, when the MPAA’s stricter policy took effect, 49% have featured smoking. Out of 441 movies rated PG-13, 296, or 67%, have featured smoking of some kind. That number has dropped to 56% since last year.
Officials with the AMAA, a volunteer arm of the American Medical Assocation, say the MPAA is failing to properly regulate on-screen smoking in movies, after making promises to crack down on it.
Sandi Frost, president of the AMAA, says the group launched the study after noticing that most of the teen-oriented summer blockbusters, including “Iron Man”, “The Incredible Hulk” and “The Dark Knight”, featured cigar smoking.
“Hollywood has not responded to the call of the public to reduce the images of tobacco,” she says. The MPAA “hasn’t fulfilled its promise.”
MPAA spokesman Seth Oster takes issue with the study. He says his organization’s own four-year analysis of 3,400 films found that of the 1,938 movies that featured smoking, 75% were rated R. In addition, he notes, the MPAA has added phrases such as “glamorizes smoking” and “pervasive smoking” in its ratings. “We have incorporated smoking as a factor on par with other issues like language, violence and sexual situations,” Oster says. “The motion picture industry takes very seriously the issue of smoking in films.”
let’s just take it one step further and start rating movies based on it’s presentation of good christian ethics. If the movie doesn’t fall into what is deemed to have good christian values then it should automatically be “NC-17”
The new MPAA will consist of people hand picked by ChildCare Action Project (CAP): Christian Analysis of American Culture
Because kids never see people smoke except in the movies… Are they going to make life rated R so that no one under 17 can actually go outside? What if mam and dad smoke? Should the kids be removed from the house? Isn’t it the parent’s responsibility to make sure that their kids don’t do something? I realize smoking is bad for you, but so is drinking. Are they going to say that drinking a beer makes a film automatically rated R? YEESH! I sometimes fear for the human race…
That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. The idea that it “would” affect teen smoking and smoking deaths is complete speculation and total bullshit, teen smoking rates and smoking rates in general in the US have been steadily declining over the last 10 years. Better burn your DVD’s of “Alice in Wonderland” and “101 Dalmations” before your kids get their hands on them because they’ll soon be rated R.