“Toxic” Tobacco Content In Hollywood Movies

ASH Media Release
For Immediate Release February 20, 2007

ASH NZ Warns Parents Of “Toxic” Tobacco Content In Hollywood Movies
On-screen tobacco called “single greatest media risk to kids”

Hollywood movies deliver tobacco smoking impressions estimated in the billions to young audiences annually and pose one of the gravest threats to New Zealand teenagers says ASH NZ. U.S. films bring in 30 percent of movie box office sales globally , so their toxic tobacco content is causing harm around the world.

“The tobacco industry can’t advertise in New Zealand, but they can still place their products in films and this misleads teens to associate smoking with benefits such as relaxation and good looks,” said Sneha Paul, ASH Spokesperson. “Hollywood is exporting toxic products and we have a responsibility to stop them.”

ASH NZ is asking for: adult-rating future tobacco scenes, anti-tobacco spots before films with tobacco imagery, certification that movies with tobacco got no tobacco pay-offs, and no more tobacco brand display.

Leading U.S. health groups and the United Nation’s World Health Organization have urged Hollywood to take voluntary steps to reduce teen exposure to tobacco imagery on screen. Studies have concluded that on-screen tobacco recruits 390,000 new teen smokers each year in the U.S. alone. Researchers also believe that the portrayal of tobacco use on film may be more psychologically engaging than a cigarette ad, and may have a bigger impact on youth’s smoking attitudes and their intent to smoke .

“Drunk driving, drug abuse, criminal violence, and HIV/AIDS are deeply tragic, yet U.S. deaths attributable to young people’s exposure to on-screen tobacco will be greater than from all those causes combined ,” noted Dr. Stanton Glantz of the University of California-San Francisco medical school.

In the week leading up to the 79th Annual Academy Awards, Feb. 25, public health groups and agencies from New York and Los Angeles to Liverpool and Auckland will be raising awareness of “toxic movies.” Global policy initiatives and grassroots mobilizations aim to stop movies pushing tobacco. For more information about tobacco in Hollywood, the evidence of harm, and the widely endorsed policy solutions, visit www.smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu.

ENDS

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