On December 17, 2018, Smokefree Movies ran its 128th ad in Variety and Hollywood Reporter reminding the studios and multinational tobacco companies that own them that they have known for 17 years that onscreen smoking hooks kids on tobacco, one third of who die early as a result.
While we have made progress – onscreen smoking is still well below its 2005 peak – but the studios still have not directed the MPAA, which they control, to modernize its rating system to, with two specific exceptions, rate movies with tobacco R. That one little letter will save a million lives among kids who are alive today.
This is a period of foment in the entertainment industry, with Disney buying Fox and its smoky film library, AT&T buying Warner, and everyone trying to figure out how to compete with Netflix and the other streaming services.
Investors, political leaders, and health organizations have been keeping the pressure on for common sense and permanent policy solutions, most important the R-rating for smoking and other tobacco use and comparable rules for streaming video.
Learn more at Smokefree Movies and support political leaders who are pressing the media companies for positive change.