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AMERICAN LEGACY FOUNDATION® TESTIFIES BEFORE CONGRESS ABOUT SMOKING IMAGES IN THE MEDIA

6/22/2007

Statement from Cheryl G. Healton, President and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation

Today on Capitol Hill, members of the U.S. Congress representing adults, parents and families across America convened for a hearing to discuss the negative impact that everyday images in media have on our nation’s children. The American Legacy Foundation^® was present to testify about important information on how images of smoking cause youth to start this dangerous and addictive behavior.

As a public health foundation dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit, Legacy specifically shared research that establishes a relationship between smoking in movies and on television and youth starting to smoke, finding that one-third of youth smoking initiation can be traced to what youth see on screen after controlling for all other factors, such as peer pressure, parental smoking and more.

This is particularly disturbing, since we know that more than 80 percent of smokers begin before the age of 18. What research tells us, and what Congress heard today from us, is that the film industry – by showing smoking on the silver screen – recruits 390,000 new smokers each year. One-third – or 120,000 – of those smokers will ultimately lose their lives to a tobacco related disease.

This mounting research addresses smoking in movies and television through movie trailers and programming popular with youth audiences. The most recent study, published in the May edition of Pediatrics, found that youth are exposed to billions of smoking images through films that are made just for them. While previous research noted that fewer youth-rated films (G, PG and PG-13) depict smoking than R-rated films (75 percent and 90 percent, respectively), youth-rated films account for the majority of smoking images to which youth are exposed because they are seen by more youth. The 534 contemporary box-office hits analyzed in the study, delivered on average 665 smoking impressions to every U.S. adolescent agent 10 to 14 years old. . That is why the foundation renewed its call for an R rating for any new movie with smoking, among other smoke-free movie principles, to reduce youth exposure to smoking in movies. Researchers have found – and we agree – that it is the only substantial policy that movie companies can voluntarily implement that would reduce youth exposure to movie smoking by half, potentially saving 60,000 young lives every year.

"Last month, MPAA announced that depictions of smoking will be considered as a ratings factor. Depictions that glamorize smoking or that feature pervasive smoking outside of an historic or other mitigating context may receive a higher rating or the inclusion of smoking may be included in the rating descriptors for the movie such as 'glamorized smoking' or 'pervasive smoking,'" Dan Glickman, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, said during today's testimony.

American Legacy Foundation President and CEO Cheryl Healton, Dr. PH, called the MPAA's announcement "wholly inadequate" and a "hesitant half step." Healton said the policy contains no objective standards or commitment to actually do anything.

"If it is to be effective, we would expect to start seeing a reduction in smoking in youth-rated films in coming months, and we will be watching," she added.

If the movie industry seriously intends to solve the problem of movie smoking, they would agree to our call for rating new smoking movies R, with the exception of the accurate representation of a historical figure or if the smoking clearly reflects the dangers of tobacco use. Three additional criteria that the foundation and other public health groups – including the World Health Organization, American Medical Association, American Heart Association, American Academy of Pediatrics and many more – strongly support and believe will have a significant effect in counteracting the problem include:

Certify no pay-offs: Producers should be required to post a certificate declaring that no one on the production received anything of value in exchange for depicting tobacco in the film.
Require strong anti-tobacco ads: Studios and theaters should require that a strong anti-tobacco ad run before any film with tobacco images, regardless of its MPAA rating.
Stop identifying tobacco ads: There should be no brand identification or brand imagery in the background of any movie scene.

We commend Chairman Edward Markey and the leadership of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet for taking this important conversation to the next level. We hope, as a result, that the public health community and families will be one step closer to a meaningful, real-life solution.

The American Legacy Foundation^® is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use, especially among vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco, through grants, technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns. The foundation’s programs include truth^®, a national youth smoking prevention campaign that has been cited as contributing to significant declines in youth smoking; EX^®, an innovative public health program designed to speak to smokers in their own language and change the way they approach quitting; research initiatives exploring the causes, consequences and approaches to reducing tobacco use; and a nationally-renowned program of outreach to priority populations. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. Visit www.americanlegacy.org.

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Contact: Julia Cartwright, 202-454-5596, jcartwright@americanlegacy.org