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Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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Number of Smoking Scenes in Movies Higher Today than in 1950's [02/17-3]
Excerpts from: Hollywood 'smoking chic' lights up the screens again
By Maxine Frith Independent.co.uk [02/17/04]
Hollywood's romance with tobacco has reignited to levels last seen in the 1950s. The number of tobacco-related scenes in Hollywood films is higher than in the 1950s, despite the fact that actual smoking rates have halved, says a new study.
Researchers from the University of California studied 20 of the highest grossing films made between 1950 and 1959, and compared them with five box-office hits from 2001 and 2002.
In the study, published in the Journal of American Public Health , they counted the number of "tobacco incidents" per hour, including scenes where a character was smoking, or there were cigarette advertisements or prominent shots of ashtrays.
In the films of the 1950s, when nearly half the population smoked, there were an average of 10.7 tobacco incidents per hour. Previous research has shown that in the 1980s, this rate fell to 4.9 per hour, partly as a result of fierce lobbying by campaigners. By 2002, when smoking rates had halved to one in five adults, there were an average of 10.9 tobacco incidents.
Two years ago, tobacco companies were revealed to have paid Hollywood producers huge sums to feature their products in leading films. A voluntary agreement had been devised in 1990 to limit this kind of product placement. Dr Stanton Glantz, the lead researcher, said: "With the long shelf life of movies through television rebroadcast, video and DVD, the high smoking levels in recent movies will continue to be a pro-smoking influence on teenagers for years to come unless remedial action is taken."
Click Here to view the abstract of this study from The American Journal of Public Health
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