| Page 2 of 2 < |
Anti-Smoking Ads Urged for DVDs
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
The debate over smoking in movies has gathered momentum since the 1990s as the strategy of anti-smoking advocates has evolved to match counterarguments from the movie industry, said Stanton A. Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California at San Francisco.
"If you look at the first 10 years, we were trying to work with Hollywood to reduce the actual appearances of smoking," Glantz said. "We'd go to these meetings. The studios would listen, wring their hands, say how much they hate smoking but couldn't interfere with artistic freedom."
So in recent years, to sidestep the artistic freedom argument, anti-smoking advocates have begun focusing on such efforts as Curran's push for anti-smoking ads and a move to account for smoking scenes in the MPAA's rating system.
Last month, in response to Curran's letters, MPAA spokeswoman Kori Bernards said each studio would have to decide individually whether to include anti-smoking ads. Many studios did not return calls by The Post to comment, and one reached, MGM, declined to comment.
As for changing the rating system so teenagers would see less smoking, Bernards said: "The rating system we have now has an 80 percent approval rating among people. I challenge you to find anyone with an 80 percent approval rating right now in this country."
Late last month, Curran's office said it had not received a response from studios on its letters.
"The movie people, to be fair about it, have listened to us," Curran said. "We just have to keep bringing it to their attention. It's a strictly voluntary effort; there's nothing we can do to force it on them."
Still, he said he and other attorneys general are not likely to give up on the issue.
"If we knew a way to prevent other diseases like heart attacks or diabetes, we'd do it in a heartbeat," he said. "Well, we know how to prevent smoking. So let's do that."
