An anti-smoking advocacy group asserts that audience impressions of characters using tobacco products doubled from 2010 to 2012 in youth-oriented films, “returning to levels of a decade ago.”
That’s the upshot from Legacy, a Washington D.C.-based organization funded by tobacco companies in settlements over litigation with government agencies. The Legacy analysis multiplies on-screen depictions with ticket sales for the movie.
Using that multiplier effect, the Legacy report suggests that in 2012 “14.8 billion tobacco impressions (were made) to theater audiences, a 169 percent increase from 2010.”
Says a Legacy press release, “Three major studios had eliminated almost all smoking in their G/PG/PG-13 movies in 2010 but, by 2012, one of the companies (Time Warner’s Warner Bros.) once again ranked number 1 in tobacco incidents, followed by Sony and then by News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox. Viacom (Paramount), Disney and Comcast (Universal) had less smoking in their 2012 youth-rated movies than in 2011…. Films with high levels of smoking include ‘The Hobbit’ (Time Warner), ‘Lincoln’ (Disney), ‘Taken 2’ (News Corp.), ‘Skyfall’ (Sony) and ‘Men in Black 3’ (Sony).”
Expect the movie industry to continue to feel pressure from anti-smoking groups and, separately, screen violence that is under growing scrutiny in the aftermath of real-life mass shootings.
On smoking, there’s a tension between advocacy groups against screen depictions citing public health concerns and creative freedom of filmmakers. Depictions of smoking are considered in audience classifications for films.
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