Smoking scenes double in youth movies

Between 2010 and 2012, the amount of smoking scenes in movies have doubled said the researchers. This comes after the US Surgeon General warned that watching movies with smoking scenes causes youngsters to start smoking.

The report found that half of youth-rated movies in 2012 delivered an estimated 14.8 billion “tobacco impressions” to audiences, a 169 percent increase from the historic low in 2010. Tobacco impressions are depictions of tobacco use multiplied by the number of tickets sold per film.

“Movies may be more powerful than traditional tobacco ads,” said Cheryl Healton, president and CEO of Legacy, a non-profit, anti-smoking foundation in the US. “We know that the more smoking that youth see in movies, the more likely they are to smoke.’€

According to the report, three major film studios had almost eliminated all smoking in their youth-rated movies in 2010. But by 2012, one of the companies – Time Warner’s Warner Bros. – had the most depictions of smoking in their youth-rated movies, followed by Sony and 20th Century Fox.

Paramount, Disney and Universal had less smoking in their youth-rated movies last year than in 2011, according to the report.

“Increases in smoking imagery in the movies are discouraging,” Dr Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a news release. “Reducing smoking and tobacco use in youth-oriented movies will help save lives, money, and years of suffering from completely preventable smoking-related chronic diseases.”

Source: HealthDay News

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