Attorneys General Urge Movie Studios to Include truth® PSAs Before Movies With Smoking

9/8/2006

Statement by American Legacy Foundation® President and CEO, Cheryl Healton, Dr. P.H.

9/8/2006

Forty-one state attorneys general around the country have again called on major motion picture studios in Hollywood to insert anti-smoking public service announcements (PSAs) warning people about the health effects of tobacco to any DVDs, videos and other newer home viewing formats of movies they distribute depicting smoking. This latest effort – in the form of a direct letter appealing to key entertainment industry leaders - follows a similar but unanswered letter to studios last November. This time, however, the attorneys general have sent three ads from the foundation’s truth^®youth smoking prevention campaign that industry leaders can immediately use to meet the request from the state attorneys general. Providing the truth^®ads is an effort to counter the effects of smoking depictions in movies, which have been demonstrated to be a significant motivator for youth nationwide to smoke.

The American Legacy Foundation^®applauds the attorneys general for their effort to counter the effects of movie smoking, and as a result, offset the billions of dollars in marketing the tobacco industry spends every day promoting its products. Placing anti-smoking ads or PSAs prior to movies with smoking can be an effective way to combat the glamorization of smoking in movies. That is why our foundation is working with the attorneys general and the film industry to try and make positive changes regarding the issue of smoking and the movies.

For this latest effort, we provided some of our most powerful spots from the award-winning truth^®campaign, including “1200,” “Body Bags,” and “Shards O’ Glass,” at no cost for the studios’ unlimited use. We know that these types of ads work, particularly with teens. One study, published in the March 2005 issue of The American Journal of Public Health, showed that 22 percent of the overall decline in youth smoking from 2000-2002 can be directly attributed to truth®, and that the campaign accelerated the decline in youth smoking during these years.

We encourage the opportunity to partner with the entertainment industry on this effort because we know that there is a clear link between smoking in the movies and young people starting to smoke. A national study of adolescents in the United States found that children with the highest exposure to smoking in movies are nearly three times more likely to start smoking than those with the least exposure. In fact, 38 percent of youth smoking initiation can be traced to exposure to smoking in movies. It is not difficult for youth to find smoking in the movies. An analysis of the top 100 grossing movies between 1996 and 2004 showed that despite a decline in tobacco use in R-rated films, no such decline was found in films rated for youth. The study, by Dartmouth Medical School and the American Legacy Foundation, found more than three-quarters of G, PG and PG-13 films contained smoking.

We believe that playing these anti-smoking PSAs before movies with smoking would help prevent young people from starting to smoke, and thus save many of our nation’s youth from lives ruled by tobacco addiction and the subsequent disease and premature death that often accompanies it.

Contact Information:
Julia Cartwright 202-454-5596