Stomping Butts In Hollywood

Why are we so concerned about Hollywood?

Films continue to suggest that smoking is cool, refreshing and popular, indirectly persuading children to start smoking.

While Smoking In The Movies Doesn’t Sell Tickets – Smoking In The Movies Does Sell Cigarettes.

Big Tobacco’s Marketing Experts and Independent Researchers Agree “We believe that most of the strong, positive images for cigarettes and smoking are created by cinema and television. We have seen the heroes smoking in ‘Wall Street’, Crocodile Dundee’, and ‘Roger Rabbit’. Mickey Rourke, Mel Gibson, and Goldie Hawn are forever seen, both on and off the screen with a lighted cigarette. It is reasonable to assume that films and personalities have more influence on consumers than a static poster of the letters from a B&H pack hung on a washing line under a dark and stormy sky. If branded cigarette advertising is to take full advantage of these images, it has to do more than simply achieve package recognition – it has to feed off and exploit the image source” 1989 Phillip Morris Market Research Study “

It’s a matter of life and death, because children will see the films, take the influences with them and begin smoking habits that will last their entire lives, many of which will be shortened due to tobacco use.

Laws restrict tobacco companies from placing products in movies. but there are lots of other ways they can pay out in the hopes that there will be product placement in the movie. Can you think of some ways the tobacco companies might use to get their products in the movies?

Pay a particular star in the movie to use their product in the movie. Send out free cigarettes or tobacco products to the set for the actors to use.

Why do they want their deadly products placed in movies?

While smoking in the movies doesn’t sell tickets – Smoking In the movies does sell Cigarettes.

According to the American Lung Association research, 50 percent of PG-13 films contained tobacco, and of the films that do contain tobacco, 82 percent included smoking by the lead actors, whom the organization contends most influence kids to smoke.

In Their Own Words “Smoking is being positioned as an unfashionable, as well as unhealthy,custom. We must use every creative means at our disposal to reverse this destructive trend. I do feel heartened at the increasing number of occasions when I go to a movie and see a pack of cigarettes in the hands of a leading lady. This is a sharp contrast to the state of affairs just a few years ago when cigarettes rarely showed up in cinema. We must continue to exploit new opportunities to get cigarettes on screen and into the hands of smokers”.

Can you believe that big tobacco has also placed their products in Cartoons? And who do you think watches those cartoons?

Did they stop there?

See if you can guess how many seconds smoking was shown in the following movies…

The following movies are G rated movies Anastasia smoking was shown seconds Hercules seconds Alice in Wonderland seconds Pinocchio seconds

In Space Jam the movie smoking was shown a total of seconds. 117

Showed smoking a total of seconds. 206

101 Dalmatians showed smoking a total of seconds. 299

Smoking was shown seconds. 243

Smoking was shown seconds. 4

More Internal Documents “Film is better than any commercial that has been run on television or in any magazine, because the audience is totally unaware of any sponsor involvement.” “Recently there have been a number of High-visibility feature films in which one Or more of the central characters smoke A particular brand of cigarettes. This has Been happening because cigarette Manufactures have been paying for the Exposure.”

So what are some things we can do to encourage Hollywood to decrease smoking in movies?

Letter writing campaign Notices in video/DVD rentals Movie reviews in school paper Movie reviews in local paper Palm cards in video/DVD rentals

Movie nights (make noise when they see someone in the movie smoking or watch only movies that don’t have smoking in them).

Theater “Warnings” Produce slides which can be played before a movie starts. Slides may contain strong anti- tobacco warnings and/or provide “truth” – Smoking in the Movies does not portray reality.

Magazine campaign (a letter writing campaign or use their own business reply cards to mail back a pro health message rather than using tobacco advertisements).